CALGARY—In the final years of cannabis prohibition, Earth Dragon Organics owner Tessa Serra and her five staff members made CBD-infused bath bombs from a small kitchen facility on Salt Spring Island.Over a hundred dispensaries across Canada stocked Earth Dragon’s line of creams, lotions and other cannabis topicals. No longer. Their bath bombs ended up in police evidence lockers more than once, but Earth Dragon didn’t withdraw from the illegal market because of a raid. Instead, Serra sold Earth Dragon to Pasha Brands, a Vancouver-based company cultivating formerly illegal companies for the regulated market. After the sale went through, Earth Dragon stopped producing and selling — for now. Once Canada’s next phase of cannabis regulations take effect in October, Earth Dragon’s goods will hit the shelves again at licensed cannabis stores. Serra said she’s frustrated by some of the changes required — instead of their old decorated compostable paper boxes, for example, their products will be wrapped in regulation packaging emblazoned with Health Canada warning labels.“As far as my recipes and ingredients — they can all stay the same,” said Serra, who will also continue to oversee Earth Dragon on Pasha’s payroll as their product manager.“I didn’t just sell it and say goodbye to it.”One of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s justifications for legalizing recreational cannabis was choking out the black market. Regulated alternatives to black-market weed would, in theory, draw customers away from the criminal organizations selling it: similar ideas ended alcohol prohibition in North America. Trudeau’s government has also been publicly adamant about shutting the door firmly in the faces of illicit operators looking to gain a foothold in the regulated market.Canada’s biggest licensed producers such as Aurora and Canopy grow cannabis at unprecedented scales in facilities m ...
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