Although Ortiz believes that prices will come down once more licensed retail stores open, he thinks the quality and lack of trust in the system will keep most people utilizing the black market.

“They will make their money from weekend smokers who don’t know what good weed should taste like,” he adds with a laugh.

Ortiz would like to see the government provide licences to experienced growers, with strict quality and security guidelines, to produce on a smaller scale for licensed shops.

From the public service perspective of legalization, Peterborough Public Health has been focused on education. The agency updated its programming with messaging included in Canada’s Lower-Risk Cannabis Use Guidelines, which acknowledges the personal choice of using cannabis but offers suggestions like using products with a lower THC content, use non-smoking cannabis products and avoiding synthetic cannabis products.

“Remember that any form of cannabis use poses a risk to your health,” says Hallie Atter, manager of the Family and Community Health Team at Peterborough Public Heath.

When it comes to enforcement, Atter notes only one ticket has been handed out since cannabis legalization under the Smoke Free Ontario Act.

Looking forward, Peterborough Public Health has put together a surveillance plan to monitor local cannabis use and attitudes.

“The real knowledge around awareness and use and impact will not be clear for a while because we are only now being able to start collecting that data,” Atter says.

Jeff Durish, director of business development for Bodystream Medical Cannabis Clinics, which has a location in East City, says he welcomes the use of tax money from the legal sale of cannabis for research.

“I think it’s good for society in general that we get a safe supply and learn more about cannabis,” he says, adding that from a medicinal standpoint, the more that is discovered about the intricacies of cannabis, the better it can be used to effectively treat people.

Peterborough Drug Strategy is conducting its own research, through focus groups from key demographics to better assess the effects of legalization in our community.

One of the organization’s goals is to find out what specifically will help making conversations about cannabis use easier, to lessen the stigma and reduce barriers for users, who may be reluctant to talk openly about cannabis with their doctor for example, Brockest says. The group will also be reaching out to the community by telephone for their cannabis survey. Those who would like to take part can visit their website.

While he has not seen a significant increase in use, or even the kind of nuisance-related issues that were projected, Brockest says that does not mitigate the need for more open, non-judgmental conversations. Because cannabis use is not risk-free, empowering users to feel free to ask direct questions to get evidence-based answers is very important.

“At the heart of all this work is to tackle that issue of stigma,” says Brockest.

“I think we get there by talking more about it, not less.”