Two weeks into the effort to capture the local cannabis market launched by a criminal organization referring to themselves as the "Canadian Government", they are without product to sell (archived). New actors in the cannabis market aligned with this upstart Canadian cartel are failing to keep up with demand for the most easily cultivated crop of of commercial value ever developed. Physical store fronts are reducing hours and closing for much of the week as they face a complete absence of any product to sell. The shortages are not of any particular kind or grade of cannabis in a way that suggests misreading demand in a selective consumer market. The shortages are of any weed at all.
The winners in this situation are the black and gray market actors satisfying the market they have long supplied in the face of a coordinated bullying campaign to rob them of their livelihoods. As this situation continues, the new Canadian cartel is faced with four options:
- They surrender their failed efforts to be a cartel, admit their mistakes, and open the market up by tossing the rulebook.
- They reach out to the people they tried to squash in a spirit of friendship and hope their efforts are met with forgiveness.
- They continune their effortful ignoring of the black and gray markets in the end writing off their own cartel play as a public health service achieving a Uruguay situation.
- The claws come out and in the name of revenue "legalization" is made more oppresive by tax agents than prohibition ever was.
It is still early in the game, and there is little information on how this criminal organization which decided to get into the drug trade is going to play the collision between their plans and reality. However, persons at risk if the claws do come out are advised to maintain their operational security without relaxing simply because "legalization" is the word of the day. It is necessary to remember the enemy is indeed a criminal organization that decided to attempt capturing the local drug trade.
