Indigenous pot shops facing crowded market, constitutional questions 5 years since legalization – CBC
Oct 20, 2023
Some Indigenous people believe they have a constitutional right to sell cannabis without government permission
After seeing how much it helped his father-in-law deal with Stage 4 cancer, Cecil (Junior) Shawana decided to get into the cannabis business.
Shawana and his wife opened Northern Superior Cannabis in Michipicoten First Nation in March 2021 and watched customers flock to the tiny community on the shores of Lake Superior from as far away as Dubreuilville and Chapleau.
But Shawana, who lives in Michipicoten but is a citizen of Wikwemikong, says since a provincially licensed store opened in Wawa, they’ve watched their profits shrink.
“Our business dropped dramatically … we lost maybe 75 per cent of our clientele,” he said.
