Conservative BC MLA blames legalization for illegal weed bust

A recently re-elected BC MLA is raising eyebrows with the province’s legal cannabis industry following a recent comment she made on social media platform “X” that said cannabis legalization is fuelling the illicit market.   

Elenore Sturko, who was just re-elected as the representative for the riding of Surrey South in BC’s recent election, made the comment on October 29, the same day the RCMP announced the seizure of a large quantity of cannabis and cannabis products from two unlicensed stores on Vancouver Island. Sturko was previously elected under the BC United banner.

“Great work by police confiscating drugs marketed to kids,” wrote Sturko on X. “More proof that legalization does not eradicate the illicit market, but instead fuels more drugs & crime.”

Neither Sturko nor the BC Conservatives replied to a request for comment on the issue or if the party itself is supportive of the province’s legal cannabis industry as of press time. Sturko is a former Surrey RCMP officer.  

Sturko was first elected to the riding of Surrey South in September 2022. Surrey, the second largest municipality in BC after Vancouver and eleventh in Canada, has a traditionally socially conservative voting base. The city itself only recently began the process of allowing companies to apply for a handful of cannabis store licences, one of the last prohibition-era holdouts in a region that has otherwise embraced cannabis legalization. 

“It’s disappointing to see that. Whether this is in BC or any other province, the intention of legalization was to create a safe and regulated product and keep it out of the hands of youth. By raiding illicit operators, really what they’re trying to do is take away that unregulated product that is shown time and again to be untested and have toxic ingredients.”

The issue highlights one of the challenges facing the cannabis industry in BC, where a large portion of the voting public is at best uninterested in industry concerns, if not still outright hostile or dismissive to them.

Cory Waldron, the owner of Mood Cannabis, a cannabis retailer in Nanaimo, BC, and president of the Licensed Retail Cannabis Council of BC (LRCCBC), says he thinks the MLA misunderstands the issue.

“It’s disappointing to see that,” says Waldron. “Whether this is in BC or any other province, the intention of legalization was to create a safe and regulated product and keep it out of the hands of youth. By raiding illicit operators, really what they’re trying to do is take away that unregulated product that is shown time and again to be untested and have toxic ingredients.”

The comments, he says, reflect a broader issue in BC politics where neither major party seems to be listening to the concerns of the legal industry. The industry is at a “critical point,” he explains, in terms of the sustainability of legalization. Companies are facing considerable challenges and not getting support from the government, be it provincial or federal.

“I think both parties [in BC], the Conservatives and NDP for the most part, don’t really want to deal with the problems that we’re seeing in BC. Not only as retailers but at the producer level as well. The file is kind of treated like the bad kid in the corner. We’re forgotten.”

“Statements like these make me wonder if our policymakers are completely unfamiliar with how our industry works. The popularity of unregulated edibles is evidence that we need better regulations, not proof that legalization fuels more crime.”

Walker Patton, from the BC Cannabis Alliance, representing cannabis producers in BC—especially craft producers—shared a similar sentiment. 

“Frankly, it’s disappointing,” Patton tells StratCann. “Statements like these make me wonder if our policymakers are completely unfamiliar with how our industry works. The popularity of unregulated edibles is evidence that we need better regulations, not proof that legalization fuels more crime. Or maybe I’m being naive in taking a comment like that at face value.”

When elected in 2020, Sturko replaced BC NDP MLA Mike Starchuk, who served as MLA for Surrey Cloverdale from 2020-2022. Before that time, Starchuck was a member of Surrey City Council from 2014-2018. In 2018, he came out in support of cannabis legalization, noting his municipal party, Surrey First, had a plan for limited cannabis retail in the city rather than an outright ban. 

Ridings in BC like Surrey Cloverdale are often dominated by more socially conservative politics, which highlights one of the challenges the legal industry faces in the province. The provincial government under the BC NDP have for years now been largely unresponsive to many industry concerns regarding provincial regulations and policies and their impact on the health of the legal cannabis sector in the province.

With an opposition apparently still stuck in the land of reefer madness and a voting public that appears to support this sentiment, there is little incentive for the BC NDP government to listen. MLA Sturko’s comments shouldn’t be surprising but instead should serve as another healthy reminder of how much further the industry has to go to shift this narrative among voters.

Even six years into legalization, there are still many who outright oppose the legal industry or, at the very least, don’t prioritize the industry’s concerns.