A group of people from B.C.’s craft cannabis industry are holding an event in Roberts Creek to kick off a province-wide “community consultation” they hope will lead to the creation of a “small cannabis producers and processors co-operative.”
The goal of the co-operative will be to “ensure authentic B.C. cannabis can be available to consumers across the province, Canada and around the world,” according to a release announcing the Roberts Creek event.
Joel Podersky, co-founder and president of the Cascadia Agricultural Co-operative Association, said, “This is an invitation to existing independent participants to come together to help create and enhance community-based access points to legal markets in the cannabis sector, and support networks to help the independent cannabis community in B.C. continue to thrive.”
Podersky, a longtime craft cannabis advocate who has been looking to establish an operation on the Sunshine Coast, told Coast Reporter in 2018 that the regulatory regime for legalizing non-medical cannabis that took effect last October was slanted against small growers.
“The first thing they should have done is allowed craft growers to participate directly in the marketplace,” he said at the time. “They should have done what they could to create conditions where an oligopoly is unlikely to form, and what they’ve done is created conditions where an oligopoly is not only very likely to form, but will inevitably form.”
A 2016 analysis of the Sunshine Coast’s cannabis industry prepared for the Gibsons Chamber of Commerce suggests the area might be well suited for a co-op approach to cannabis production. The analysis identified some 600 producers of all sizes and types, with a workforce earning anywhere from $20 to $25 per hour.
The community consultation is scheduled for Feb. 15 at the Roberts Creek Community Hall from 6 to 9 p.m.
It’s being co-hosted by the Cascadia Agricultural Co-Op Association and Grow Tech Labs.
See www.bcscpp.com/news for more information.
