{"id":1159,"date":"2021-09-17T22:54:36","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T22:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/wp-home\/?p=177474"},"modified":"2021-09-17T22:54:36","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T22:54:36","slug":"once-illegal-brands-are-taking-over-the-legal-cannabis-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=1159","title":{"rendered":"Once illegal brands are taking over the legal cannabis market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <title>Once illegal brands are taking over the legal cannabis market &#8211; Leafly<\/title>     <!-- This is Index Exchange, a script\/\/3rd-party integration that interjects GAM. It needs to be 'ahead' of GTM in the DOM, which comes from Cephalopod. GTM loads GAM. This script needs to setup it's interjection stuff before GAM loads. --> <!-- End Index Exchange --> <!-- Quotes = strings--><!-- No quotes = boolean-->\t   <!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v17.1.2 (Yoast SEO v17.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->                  <!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. --> <\/p>\n<p> <!-- BEGIN Sailthru Horizon Meta Information --><\/p>\n<p><!-- END Sailthru Horizon Meta Information -->  <!-- Google Publisher Tag --> <!-- End Google Publisher Tag --> <!-- Google Tag Manager --> <!-- End Google Tag Manager --> <!-- Chartbeat --> <!-- End Chartbeat --><br \/>\n <!-- Google Tag Manager (noscript) -->   <!-- End Google Tag Manager (noscript) -->   <title>Leafly<\/title>     <title>Leafly \u00ae<\/title>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              <title>Loading\u2026<\/title>     <\/p>\n<div class=\"bg-white fixed flex hidden inset-0 items-start md:h-auto md:items-center overflow-auto\" id=\"age-gate-container\">\n<div class=\"bg-white md:h-auto mx-auto p-lg text-sm w-full\" id=\"age-gate\">\n<p><label for=\"select-country\">Where are you from?<\/label><\/p>\n<div class=\"age-gate__info\">\n<p><label for=\"select-province\">Which part of Canada?<\/label><\/p>\n<div class=\"age-gate__age hidden\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"error error--underage hidden\">Darn! You&#8217;re not old enough to use Leafly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"error error--unavailable hidden\">Sorry, Leafly isn&#8217;t available in your location yet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"hidden age-gate__loading\">Redirecting you to<span class=\"redirect-domain\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-xs mt-auto\">By accessing this site, you accept<br \/>\nthe <a class=\"py-xl\" data-testid=\"tou-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.ca\/info\/terms-of-use\">Terms of Use<\/a><br \/>\nand <a class=\"py-xl\" data-testid=\"pp-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.ca\/info\/privacy-policy\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"container my-xl\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col md:col-9\" id=\"article-content\">\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Before legalization, cannabis enthusiasts perfected their products with the hopes of participating in the legal market. The legacy market, a term used largely to describe these prohibition pros, offers years of expertise that can ultimately lead to better products. <\/p>\n<p>Licensed producers are seeing this value, offering many of these players partnership deals to bring their products to market. As a result, the legacy-to-legal pipeline is thriving\u2014and for the industry and the consumer, that\u2019s a very good thing.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cLegal, illegal, it doesn\u2019t matter to us. We grew up in a time when all this stuff was illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><cite>Matt Zysman, co-founder Shatterizer<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"h-victory-is-sweet-for-gummy-brand\">Victory is sweet for gummy brand<\/h2>\n<p>Tabitha Fritz and her husband Ari Cohen started selling gummy edibles at Toronto\u2019s popular Green Market in Kensington back in 2016. It was a popular launch point and Fritz\u2019s Cannabis Company, as it is called now, grew into something the couple were dedicated to.<\/p>\n<p>However, the legal market remained the goal for the couple. In order to make the transition from the illicit market to the regulated space, they had to start preparing for the licensing process. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t sustainable,\u201d says Fritz. \u201cWe have kids, we have a family, we need to make sure that we\u2019re not freaking out every time the doorbell rings.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Gummies, freshly sealed and coming soon to a store near you! Ask your friendly neighbourhood cannabis retailer about getting us in stock ? all lined up and ready to go! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AaXNlirTFY\">pic.twitter.com\/AaXNlirTFY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fritz&#8217;s Cannabis Company (@FritzsCanada) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FritzsCanada\/status\/1428748989554479107?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 20, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>So they shut down their website, stopped selling gummies, and got to work transitioning into the legal market. Fritz\u2019s teamed up with Medz Cannabis, a producer aiming to bring on \u2018innovative, quality-centric and legacy transfer brands.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt took almost about a year to actually make the transition; it was really, really difficult,\u201d Fritz says. \u201dIt took a lot longer than we expected, and it cost more money than we expected it to cost, but here we are now, and I\u2019m selling gummies.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-the-rise-of-a-different-kind-of-cannabis-entrepreneur\">The rise of a different kind of cannabis entrepreneur<\/h2>\n<p>Medz Cannabis has become a convenient pathway into the legal market, with more brands coming up all the time. Day-to-day, it means Fritz and Cohen are working in a facility alongside other small producers, many of whom also come from the legacy market. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a few of us who are trying right now to form a co-op of small producers, legacy market people,\u201d she says. The co-op\u2019s aim is to help incubate a new generation of cannabis industry players, hopeful that they can lead and shape the industry\u2019s future. <\/p>\n<p>A little more Kensington Market, a little less Bay Street.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" alt class=\"wp-image-177597 has-ll lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/once-illegal-brands-are-taking-over-the-legal-cannabis-market-1.jpg,compress&amp;w=550 550w, https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/once-illegal-brands-are-taking-over-the-legal-cannabis-market-1.jpg,compress&amp;w=740 740w, https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/once-illegal-brands-are-taking-over-the-legal-cannabis-market-1.jpg,compress&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/once-illegal-brands-are-taking-over-the-legal-cannabis-market-1.jpg,compress&amp;w=1480 1480w\"><figcaption>Fritz and Cohen are proud of their transition from legacy to legal markets. (Fritz\u2019s Cannabis Company)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cAll of the sudden we have this network of knowledge and ideas,\u201d she says. \u201cI think by collaborating and having people right there with us who feel the same way, it helps us do better.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The old face of the industry \u201cwas a group of people who are almost entirely made up of white guys in suits,\u201d she says. \u201cI think what we\u2019ve seen now is that doesn\u2019t work, it doesn\u2019t translate in cannabis, and that\u2019s a good thing.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a chance to sort of rebuild everything in the way that makes the most sense for the world doing forward. It\u2019s some creative destruction in there.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-not-everyone-has-been-able-to-go-legit\">Not everyone has been able to \u2018go legit\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Others have not found the transition so easy.<\/p>\n<p>For a couple of years around the start of the legal market, edible-maker and Treats and Treats founder Yannick Craigwell\u2019s name showed up in the news a lot. <\/p>\n<p>The then-brand-new legal cannabis industry&nbsp;was supposed to be a godsend for people like him\u2014small-time cannabis entrepreneurs who possessed the talents, experience, and products that the legal industry&nbsp;wanted. <\/p>\n<p>When news outlets wanted to understand who these people were and what they wanted, many of them called Craigwell.<\/p>\n<p>Craigwell would tell you he is a baker who makes edibles, not an edible-maker who bakes; this distinction is crucial, he says, because it affects both the process and the final product. <\/p>\n<div class=\"my-xxl wp-block-leafly-blocks-leafly-related-articles\">\n<p><h2>More great reads<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cYou realize how hard it is just to get over to that side,\u201d he says. \u201cOnce you <em>think<\/em> you\u2019ve gone through a door, you realize no, you\u2019ve just put your foot in the door frame. The door\u2019s not really open yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To stay truly independent remains difficult and expensive\u2014for people like Craigwell, the best option is still to try and cut a fair deal with a licensed producer. As producers realize the value of products from the legacy market, those deals are starting to get better.<\/p>\n<p>So far, that\u2019s been more marathon than a sprint for Craigwell. The hope, for him and plenty of other businesses like his, is that the wait pays off and allows him to carve out a little corner of the legal cannabis industry where his \u2018baker\u2019s process\u2019 can flourish. <\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Legal, illegal, it doesn\u2019t matter to us\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>And then there\u2019s Val McCulloch and Matt Zysman, the creators of the Shatterizer dab pen. <\/p>\n<p>One effect of the blurring lines between legacy and legal is it brings in characters like McCulloch and Zysman \u2014 enthusiastic about pot and evangelical power users of their own product.<\/p>\n<p>The pair took a homemade \u2018Frankenstein\u2019 vape and turned it into a tidy device and sustainable family business. They seem cut from a different cloth than a lot of the legal industry.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img width=\"1024\" height=\"1005\" alt class=\"wp-image-177599 has-ll lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/once-illegal-brands-are-taking-over-the-legal-cannabis-market-2.jpg,compress&amp;w=550 550w, https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/once-illegal-brands-are-taking-over-the-legal-cannabis-market-2.jpg,compress&amp;w=740 740w, https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/once-illegal-brands-are-taking-over-the-legal-cannabis-market-2.jpg,compress&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/once-illegal-brands-are-taking-over-the-legal-cannabis-market-2.jpg,compress&amp;w=1480 1480w\"><figcaption>They supported their legacy market friends with the Shatterizer vape, now they have a line of cannabis concentrates to match. (Twitter @aglibs)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Although they were never quite \u2018illegal\u2019, they were always legacy-market adjacent. Part of an early cohort of cannabis vaporizers aimed at medical patients and adult-use enthusiasts alike.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe weren\u2019t out growing or selling any cannabis products,\u201d Zysman says. \u201cBut we were supporting a lot of legacy friends with our hardware.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, they\u2019re rolling out their own brand of shatter\u2014the planned next step for them, and their first true legacy-to-legal product.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just wanted to make sure that when it was fully legal to produce extracts, that we could participate,\u201d Zysman says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve always dreamed of having an extracts brand,\u201d McCulloch says. Part of that is that they both love extracts, and want other people to love them, too. \u201cWe have a real opportunity to educate here. To have some fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For them, the strict lines between legacy and legal don\u2019t matter all that much. Their allegiance is not to the cannabis industry but to the cannabis community, on whichever side of the law they fall. <\/p>\n<p>Rather than legacy and legal being strictly opposed to one another, their view on it is that both can sustainably coexist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLegal, illegal, it doesn\u2019t matter to us,\u201d Zysman says. \u201cWe grew up in a time when all this stuff was illegal. It wasn\u2019t an issue for us then, and it isn\u2019t an issue for us now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince going into the legal side with our extracts, we\u2019ve still been supported and embraced by our friends in the legacy community. We\u2019re all doing what we\u2019re passionate about. There\u2019s room for everybody to play.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"author-box\" class=\"p-lg my-xxl bg-white rounded border border-light-grey elevation-low\">\n<div class=\"mb-lg\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/once-illegal-brands-are-taking-over-the-legal-cannabis-market.jpg\" alt=\"Kieran Delamont's Bio Image\" class=\"lazyload inline-block mr-md rounded-full border border-light-grey\"> <\/p>\n<p>Kieran Delamont<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"text-sm\">Kieran is a writer and photographer based in Nova Scotia, located in Mi\u2019kma\u2019ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi&#8217;kmaq people. His work has appeared in Broadview, The Walrus, Maisonneuve, and elsewhere, and he has been writing about the cannabis industry since 2016.<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"text-sm font-bold underline text-green\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.ca\/news\/author\/kieran-delamont\">View Kieran Delamont&#8217;s articles<\/a> <\/div>\n<div class=\"leafly-sailthru-signup p-lg my-xl bg-white rounded elevation-low border border-light-grey\">\n<p class=\"text-xs pt-lg\">By submitting this form, you will be subscribed to news and promotional emails from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\">Leafly<\/a> and you agree to Leafly&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/company\/tos\">Terms of Service<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafly.com\/company\/privacy-policy\">Privacy Policy<\/a>. You can unsubscribe from Leafly email messages anytime.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!-- Chartbeat --> <!-- End Chartbeat -->  <!--\nPerformance optimized by W3 Total Cache. 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Licensed producers are seeing this&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marijuana_information"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/once-illegal-brands-are-taking-over-the-legal-cannabis-market.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}