3 years after legalization, Okanagan weed tour operator hoping for post-pandemic business reset

Kelowna wine tour operator Nicholas Wilson says he remembers his parents being gobsmacked when he told them five years ago he wanted to organize cannabis tours in the Okanagan, once Canada legalized the use of recreational weed.

"The baby boomer generation, you know, they were fed those indoctrinated documentaries like Reefer Madness," Wilson said of the 1936 American propaganda film filled with alarmist views about marijuana addiction.

"My mum was terrified if she smoked a joint, she would immediately go to heroin and prostitution." 

The lingering social stigma around cannabis — even in the wake of the federal government's legalization of its recreational use in October 2018 — is one of the topics Wilson and others working in the industry will discuss in the inaugural annual B.C. Cannabis Summit that starts Wednesday April 20, also known as 4/20 or World Weed Day.

The three-day event, co-organized by the B.C. Craft Farmers Co-Op and Association of Canadian Cannabis Retailers, at a hotel in downtown Kelowna is bringing together politicians and business leaders to talk about changes in federal law that would allow for more promotion and growth in the weed industry.

As he had promised before legalization, Wilson organized dozens of cannabis tours in 2018 and 2019 in the Okanagan based on U.S. models, with visits to a hemp farm, two dispensaries and a brewery.

However, he maintains cannabis tourism failed to take off in Canada because of federal government rules regulating and restricting promotion of the product.

Greg Christie, who runs the Terroir Craft hemp farm in south Kelowna that has formed part of Wilson's tour, admits marijuana consumption is still a sensitive issue in the region.

"There's certainly a stigma around it still, and we're hoping to break that out here," he said.

Wilson will resume cannabis tours this June after two years of pandemic hiatus. He says he hopes his guided tours will help to bust the stigmatization around cannabis use.

"A lot of folks have smoked a joint … and have been purchasing it illicitly over the years, but now they can come out and enjoy it and get some education and awareness."