NORML Cannabis Advocacy Group Gets New Head
Jennawae McLean, a cannabis retailer in Kingston, Ont., is now Executive Director of the NORML cannabis advocacy group (Canadian chapter). The long-time industry participant will tackle several issues affecting the Canadian cannabis industry including packaging and taxes.
Although cannabis and environmentalism should go hand in hand, it’s actually tough in Canada for licensed producers (LPs) – and consumers – to go green. At least when it comes to packaging. Companies such as the Green Organic Dutchman have environmentalism build into their DNA. But mandated packaging means LPs or cannabis retailers can’t just source a bamboo-based container, for example.
McLean and the NORML cannabis advocacy group wants to see them reduced or eliminated. “We’d like to see (plastic containers) super reduced,” McLean said. “Find more environmentally friendly options, including maybe zero-waste cannabis stores — that would be the dream.”
It’s been an on-going problem in Canada. From the beginning, the cannabis industry has wanted to go green with cannabis containers. Worse, the mandated plastics in cannabis packaging tends to be mixed plastics which is harder – or in some places in Canada, impossible – to recycle. Last year the Alberta Bottle Depot Association asked the provincial government to introduce a cannabis container deposit.
NORML Cannabis Advocacy Group Will Fight to Lower Taxes – LPC
McLean said that the NORML cannabis advocacy group will also focus on lowering taxes on cannabis.
“The excise tax is way too high, which is an issue from a few standpoints,” McLean said. “It really limits what micro-producers are able to do. It also eliminates value brands, and makes value brands difficult, so it eliminates access.”
Taxes also slow down the process of disrupting the illegal cannabis market. Even though the legal cannabis market outpaced the illegal one about a year ago, there is a long way to go.
The NORML cannabis advocacy group is also fighting to eliminate taxes on medical cannabis altogether, McLean said.
Three years after cannabis legalization in Canada, there is a lot to look at. Some wonder if the Canadian cannabis industry can even be fixed. NORML and cannabis advocacy groups like it can go a long way lobbying government for change.
Read the Original Story at Global News
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