José Cruz: Well what do you think? Do you think Canada’s making a- a good step forward with um- with cannabis legalization?

Andrew Zitzmann: Uh, Well I uh I- personally I’m really surprised at how quickly um legalization’s been spreading across across the globe (Yeah) Um, ah of course as-as, as a youngster it was, “Yeah come on we should legalize this stuff! There’s nothing wrong with it.” But…

José: Yeah because we were punks. (Yeah) We wanted easier access to the stuff.

Andrew: Sure. Exactly exactly um, and now I think- from from what- I-I haven’t read it that closely, um but just looking at the news and things like that, it just seems like it’s just another big opportunity for big companies (Mmm) to make a new market (Yup) and shut out everybody else and make killer profits.

José: I’m seeing the same thing. That wa- That that’s actually right up there with my assessments, or assessments of recent developments. (Right. Yeah) Uh before, my ideal was that this is going to be legalized. (Hm) It’s going to be controlled. (Yeah) You know you’re not– you’re not going to think that uh, or you shouldn’t be allowed to think that this is anything uh uh that’s better for you than alcohol (Right) or not “better for you”. That that’s anymore dangerous for you as something to imbibe (Hmm) like alcohol or anything. You can’t drive and and do this stuff in the car. You can’t you can’t do this while you’re at work. (Right) All of that stuff (Yeah) If that’s enforced then yes. Let anybody sell it. Let anybody sell it and grow it, and let the market fall where it is. But when the government started saying well, we’re going to enforce the sales of it like we do- you know in Canada we have strict enforcement- provincial control and enforcement of alcohol sales I thought, OK I can live with that.

Andrew: Uh that that that depends on the province.

José: This is true. (Québec) Yeah you’re from Québec.

Andrew: Yeah so. Québec uh, pretty free with the alcohol. We can buy it anywhere we want. Uh Ontario, you’ve got to go to the Liquor Board (Right right) You want beer you go here, you want wine you go there. It’s a bit of a pain, but…

José: But that’s OK. You know (Yeah) like uh that’s still to the point of like respecting cultural norms. And if Ontario wants to be prudish, (Yeah) then be prudish. Montréal, you know historically more European- that’s fine. (Yeah) And um, BC is somewhere closer to Ontario than than Québec, but still, I could live with it. (Yeah) But now, it sounds like, it’s just like you said. (Hmm) It’s an opportunity for the government and some of their rich friends (Yup) to you know. just pile on.

Andrew: I think just the other day there was an article about some company had just bought another uh marijuana company for I don’t know 1.2 billion dollars.

José: It was a merger.

Andrew: Yeah a merger.

José: I forget the names of the two companies.

Andrew: I think (But it was) you’ve probably seen it as well.

José: Because America is so uber-prudish about this that it just um… Th- the Attorney General Jeff Sessions the guy lives, I don’t know where he live. His idea…

Andrew: But I think the problem with the States is because it’s all, it’s state regulated. It’s very difficult to give- put a a nationwide- I mean they have the problem now because in the States, certain states have said, “Yes, OK we’re fine with legalization” (Mm hmm) but technically in the States, in in the country it’s still illegal.

José: Yeah that’s the Federal level. So (Right) you can have you know pretty free access to uh the stuff in Colorado (Yeah) but because of Federal laws controlling money that exchanges hands that were baed on uh trade in Illi- what they call illicit drugs. These these these small like cannabis shops in Denver and Boulder (Mm) they actually keep all of their money in a safe (mm) under the shop, like I’ve seen this now, two of these places, it’s a gigantic super secure safe wi- with a hoard of cash (Yeah) from sales of the shop. They can’t put it in a bank. A bank can’t deal with them. (Oh really)