Vancouver, the new Amsterdam? How the city is gearing up to legalise cannabis

"Outside the Provincial Court of British Columbia (BC) in downtown Vancouver, a city regularly hailed as one of the best places to live in the world, there is a farmers market dedicated to marijuana – or “craft cannabis” as traders like to call it.

Glass jars filled with the drug are lined up on tables beneath a gazebo, which protects hawkers and punters from the incessant rain.

“We get all different types of people coming here,” says Jesse Slater, who mans one of the stalls. “Every race, creed and colour; different ages too.”

Vancouver's cannabis farmers' market CREDIT: GAVIN HAINES

Cannabis is currently illegal in Canada, but not for long; next July the country will become the first G7 nation to fully legalise the recreational use of weed. Until then the authorities in British Columbia are turning a blind eye to the province’s overt marijuana industry, as they have done for decades.

“BC has always been the Mecca for marijuana in Canada,” explains Jesse, who sports a bushy beard, thick spectacles and high-vis jacket. “It’s part of the culture here.”

Jesse worked as a street dealer in the Nineties, but took a job in construction when he realised “swinging a hammer paid the bills more readily.

”Not for much longer, perhaps. According to the accounting firm, Deloitte, a legal cannabis industry in Canada could be worth a whopping $23 billion (£13.5bn) a year to the economy; investors are already queuing up to get a slice of the pie, leading some commentators to compare legalisation with the Gold Rush.

Deloitte reckons tourism could play a part in the burgeoning industry, though it clearly already does."...

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