Letter: Bait & Switch Part Two: Electricboogaloo

By Drew Craig Founder, President & Senior Consultant of Ginger Ganja Group Corporation

A follow up to a previous article published June 16

Fentanyl & Carfentanil

Are not being used by Black Market dealers to get users addicted to the highly proven non-addictive cannabis in hopes of driving up their sales & profit margins. The main reason for this, other than it is one of the biggest crocks of shit I have heard, the mainstream media have been fear mongering to the general public is that it is just not cost effective & because of the price differences there is just no way to break even nevermind expanding profit margins.

For Black Market cannabis dealers to be profitable, they have to rely on the fact that their product, whatever it maybe, has to look, feel & smell good, as is with any other consumable product. With the added effect that it gets the user the ‘high’ that they are looking for.  If you don’t have that ‘good chronic’, your customer base is just going to move to the next one that does.

Now I know this is where most of you are going to say, ‘Isn’t that why they ARE using it? Some dealers do not have access to high end strains, so to compensate for that, they try to make it artificially by adding these drugs!’.  There is no effective way to spread it equally to ensure that you do not overdose & waste both of their products.

I’ve had this same discussion with many, both professional & non, both in the medical field & in the black market.

One thing I do know is that there are a lot of deaths due to both fentanyl & carfentanil in the Soo & across the Nation for that matter, that are not known to the general public. Many of these deaths are also strictly known cannabis users dieing from using cannabis only. This has been confirmed to me by multiple local EMS personnel.

The only viable argument that I have heard, that came from Black Market sources, is that the only cannabis users that really have to worry are the users that acquire their cannabis from dealers that deal in multiple drugs (Cannabis, Methamphetamine, Fentanyl/Carfentanil, MDMA etc.) & the dealer only uses one scale. If dealers are not using proper sanitizing techniques, safe operating procedures or job safe practices (I have never met one), this is going to result in cross contamination of their products. Which to the ‘hard’ drug user is no biggie but to the recreational cannabis user has dire consequences.

I do know that there are some dealers who use multiple scales. For example a scale calibrated to 0.0 for cannabis products & a scale calibrated to 0.00 for powered products, cocaine, meth, fentanyl etc.

User A goes to dealer X whom deals everything noted above. User A buys 7 grams of fentanyl. Unfortunately, User A can somewhat safely handle the effects & leaves a happy customer. User B goes to dealer X & buys 14 grams of cannabis flower. Now the dealer doesn’t clean their scale, weighs up the buds, some of the previously sold fentanyl is transferred to some of the buds & User leave another happy customer. Until a short time later when User B, who has never used fentanyl, busts up some of the contaminated bud, rolls up a joint, lights a joint, inhales & dies.

The only way to truly know where your cannabis is coming from is if you can trust your dealer & their sources, grow your own or eventually trust the LPs that have had numerous tainted batch scandals.

Oh by the way, the soon to be first 40 recreational storefronts that will be established before July next year, will be established via Cities/Towns that put forth an expression of interest for a location & for some reason instead of regulating the Dispensaries that in most places other than Toronto, service the Medical Cannabis Patient community & is their preferred method to acquire their medication versus growing their own.