Matt Maurer speaks to The Star about how cannabis shops are doing, 2 months in

“It’s hard to say how lucrative it’s been,” says Matt Maurer, vice-chair of the Cannabis Law Group at the Toronto firm Torkin Manes LLP. “But I don’t think any of them, if you could take a time machine and go back, would say I wish I’d never gotten into this.”

It’s that process — which requires operators to earn both a retail store operator’s licence and a store authorization for their chosen location — that has been largely responsible for many of the delayed openings, Maurer says.

“People thought it might be construction that would really hold things up,” says Maurer, who has represented seven of the 25 of the Ontario operations. “But I haven’t heard of construction holding up any of the stores,” he says, adding that the licensing process dragged out much longer in most cases.

This article was originally published on The Star. To read the complete article, visit the The Star website.