The Vancouver Sun reports in its Friday edition that six months after cannabis became legal in Canada, dozens of dispensaries continue to operate without a provincial licence in British Columbia as both local governments and the province struggle to shut them down. The Sun's Glenda Luymes writes that the robust illicit market, including "grey-market" dispensaries, were cited as the reason B.C. lags behind other Canadian provinces in legal cannabis retail sales in a recent report by Arcview Market Research. Analyst Tom Adams wrote that legal retail outlets at the outset of legalization constitute "a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to the hundreds of 'grey' market unlicensed stores," mostly in B.C. and Ontario. The grey market will "hold back, to some degree, the legal market, in that not all [illicit] operators will either get licensed or go away," predicted Mr. Adams, managing director and principal analyst with Colorado-based BDS Analytics. The City of Vancouver has identified 20 cannabis dispensaries still operating without provincial licences, Kathryn Holm, the city's chief licence inspector, told Postmedia earlier this week. Nine of the 20 are participating in a test case before the B.C. courts.