WATCH: A huge cloud of smoke hung over Victoria City Hall Friday evening as hundreds of people lit up. The crowd was there for the annual 4/20 smoke-in, the last one before cannabis is legalized this summer. Isabelle Raghem has more
Victoria’s 4/20 rally in Centennial Square has been happening for decades, but this year there’s a sense of victory in the capital city and across Canada.
The cannabis industry is booming ahead of marijuana legalization this summer. News numbers from Statistics Canada show a demographic shift from what was once a “youth-driven” market in the 60s and 70s.
More than one in four Canadians who use cannabis are now between 25 and 34. Baby boomers between the ages of 55 and 64 represent another 10 per cent.
Steve Boker from PI Financial Corp. is speaking at the National Cannabis Conference in Victoria this weekend and he said while the pot market is getting a lot of attention, it’s also a market faced with a lot of uncertainty.
“We’re about to enter a marketplace that is akin to what we saw with the ending of prohibition in the United States in the 1930s,” Boker said.
Victoria is one of the few municipalities in the province working on a cannabis retail distribution model ahead of legalization.
“”whether you think it’s progressive or not, I think it was just realistic, we couldn’t really turn a blind eye,” Victoria Coun. Marianne Alto said.
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