It was very successful from a visual standpoint. We no longer drive down our streets and see three or four green crosses along the side of the road. What we are not sure about yet, a year in, is whether they have really closed or have just gone underground. Have they gone to Craigslist? Have they gone fully back into the black market?
We do know that since those stores closed, sales in our retail stores increased in that three-month period around the closure of the dispensaries by about $30 million. Our patient community that was going to those illegal stores started going to the licensed retail stores. If we haven't completely eliminated them, we know we've certainly taken a big bite out of them.
How they were closed was through our law enforcement. They sent out letters saying that you have to close down on this date, July 1, if you don't have a licence with the Liquor and Cannabis Board, and if you don't, we will come in and arrest you. Then on July 1, when a few didn't close, they made a high media event arrest, and everybody else kind of decided to follow the law or go deep underground where we can't find them.