Meaning that after being illegal to grow for six decades, there were no producers or people using hemp products for raw materials in Canada or the US.

To develop a market organically, there has to be product available and people trying to make use of it. When the government regulates it to such an extant that it drives up cost of production beyond being a viable market product in certain conditions, then it will not become a viable crop in exactly the conditions where it was regulated not to be one.

In western Canada, with huge tracts of land, the fear of loss of income was small, as it reflects small acreage and the opportunity costs were low, since high value crops aren't suited to the land. This drove significant amounts of production. Once significant amounts are available, then it becomes worth the effort to meet the government regulations in regard to THC content. Inspectors were available, process became known and many of the costs became profit centres for some of the parties. For example, the high cost of pedigree seeds was being received by them, the costs associated with volunteer plants were almost non-existent, whereas we are still discussing if a farmer out here should be accountable for volunteer plants due to higher population density.

Once seed oil had a supply and processor, the by-products become raw materials, and further products develop. Current processing facilities require a steady supply of materials, and a $5m processing plant is only recently being set up in Romania to handle 5,000 hectares of product annually to break even with a capacity of ten times that.

In Canada, our most recent plants have been said to cost $13m and $32m. While other regions could have competed this entire time, and still have means to be competitive even though the western section has had a huge head start, the regulations are just prohibitive. Pedigree seeds boosts an external economy, have shipping and low quantity costs, their is no one adept at the paperwork, no testing facilities, so would need to play approx 5 times as much for testing as out west, and in order to meet the other regulatory requirements (generally set up by the "stake-holders", the original companies who are now the monopolies), it means a long-term sacrifice without a guaranteed favourable outcome.