Some mould with your joint, sir? No? How about a nice buzz with a side of e coli or pesticide?
That’s exactly what you could be getting with cannabis products bought on the illegal market, warns a new campaign from the Ontario Cannabis Store launching today.
The campaign, called Buzz Kill, includes a pop-up fake black market store near Queen and Bathurst Sts., complete with phoney product names and labels like “pesticider,” “e cola,” and “extra fuzzy peach rings.”
It’s a joint campaign between the OCS — the wholesaler for the legal retail market — and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, the provincial regulator.
Unlike some dire anti-drug warnings from government health agencies over the years, however, this one is done with some cheeky attempts at humour.
“What gives this cannabis-infused cider its signature oomph? We like to think it’s love. But realistically, it’s probably our unregulated use of toxic pesticides,” reads the label for Pesticider.
“A sweet blast from the past, this peachy-keen gummy is packed with all-natural fungal flavours for a balance of fruitiness and strange growths,” reads the package for Extra Fuzzy Peach Rings.
In an interview at the pop-up site while it was still being put together this week, OCS CEO David Lobo acknowledged that there might be a bit of hyperbole in the campaign, but says the goal is to raise awareness of the biggest differences between the legal and illegal pot markets.
“This is less about an epidemic of people going to the ER, and more about educating people about what they’re putting into their bodies,” said Lobo, adding that random testing of grey market products has found everything from bacteria, to mould and pesticides.
The campaign also has a four-item checklist for consumers to make sure they’re buying from a legal store or website:
Check the seal: A provincial retail seal must be displayed near the store entrance
Check the list: The AGCO maintains a list of all legal cannabis stores in the province
Check the package: Legal cannabis products have an excise stamp and comes in plain, child-resistant, tamper-proof packaging with health warnings.
Check the ID and payment: If a site asks for an e-transfer payment or for you to upload a copy of your ID, that’s a surefire sign the retailer isn’t a legal one.
Still, Lobo acknowledged, the grey market in Ontario is worth an estimated $1 billion a year, while the legal recreational cannabis market is worth roughly $2 billion.
The fact the grey market is still a substantial chunk of cannabis sales is a frustration for retailers and producers in the legal market, as well as the OCS, Lobo said. Grey market producers and retailers don’t have the same quality control or labelling accuracy as the legal market, he said.
“They’re not testing or tracking their products,” said Lobo. “We want to hold ourselves accountable.”
In addition to getting a little more than they bargained for with bacteria or mould, consumers might also be getting a little less than they’re expecting when it comes to the sometimes eye-popping potency claimed on the colourful labels of grey market products, Lobo added.
“The strengths aren’t always as advertised,” Lobo said.
But ad campaigns claiming all sorts of unseemly extras in grey market products aren’t likely to actually scare any consumers off, says cannabis researcher Tiffanie Perrault.
“It’s not going to change the minds of someone who feels their needs aren’t being met in the legal market,” said Perrault, an assistant professor at Michigan’s Grand Valley State University and former post-doctoral researcher at McGill University.
While cost of legal pot is sometimes cited as a reason for the persistence of the grey market, Perrault says it’s far from the only factor.
“There are some people who are concerned about cost. But it’s not just that,” said Perrault. “It’s also the variety of products and sometimes the quality or potency.”
Still, Perrault said, the grey market’s share of pot consumption has gradually been coming down since the federal government legalized recreational use in 2018.
“It was about 50-50 in the first year after legalization,” Perrault estimated.
The easiest part of shifting consumers from the grey market to the legal one has already happened, said Lobo. The progress from here on in will be slower, and requires a mix of education, enforcement and evolving regulations (such as less stringent limits on edibles), Lobo added.
“No single tactic is going to work for the entire illegal market. I don’t think it will ever go away forever.”
