Ontario Canada

Cannabis News
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Ontario will sell recreational cannabis online only when it is legalized Oct. 17 and allow “tightly regulated” private retail stores into the weed business by next April 1.

The sales model from Premier Doug Ford’s new Progressive Conservative government marks a shift from the previous Liberal administration’s plan for 150 brick-and-mortar Ontario Cannabis Stores by 2020. The first four were slated for Toronto, Guelph, Kingston and Thunder Bay.

“The government of Ontario will not be in the business of running physical cannabis stores,” Finance Minister Vic Fedeli said in a statement.

“Instead, we will work with private sector businesses to build a safe, reliable retail system that will divert sales away from the illegal market.”

The province will soon begin consultations on rules that retailers will have to follow — including those on hours of operation and guidelines for training staff, Fedeli and Attorney General Caroline Mulroney said.

They promised a zero-tolerance policy with “severely escalating fines” for any pot retailers operating in illicit markets on the side.

Retailers must buy their supplies from federally licensed producers and all stores will have to sell products in plain packaging.

Dispensaries now deemed illegal will remain outside the law — but officials said in a background briefing that it is yet to be determined if they will be eligible to apply to become licensed retailers. Criteria have not yet been set.

The online sales will be through the Ontario Cannibis Stores website with age verification to make sure buyers are the legal age of 19, and proof of identity will be required on delivery.

Products will likely be sold with an official seal “to help consumers identify legitimate retailers,” a statement said.

Municipalities will be able to reject cannabis stores within their boundaries.

Five provinces — British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland — plan to allow private stores to sell recreational cannabis.

Officials said Ontario is looking to them for best practices this province could adopt.

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What age verification system could actually protect youth? This is making the street dealers do the happy dance no doubt in my mind. Or at least until next spring. Many Cannabis consumers will never buy mail order so this will just keep the need for the black market sellers. idiocy imo.

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I couldn’t respectfully disagree with this more.

After the ACMPR came in the replace the MMPR system here, it gave way to a FLOOD of online retailers. Here are just a few examples of places that I personally have ordered from-

https://remedyandrelief.com/

These companies operate in the same Grey Market as any B&M store currently operating. Everytime I have ordered it’s been top shelf quality, quick shipping and usually a great price.

On top of that, all of the big growers who have already been operating under ACMPR rules have had to mail their products to their patients by law. It’s been proven to be extremely successful here in Canada.

Not to bash Americans, but you guys seems to forget just how different our country is from yours. The majority of our population does not live in metropolitans. Canada is mostly made up of villages and small towns. There are only 10k people in my town. The closest big city is 3 hours away and the closest metropolitan is 5.5 hours away.

We are lucky because we have a dispensary here. But it’s also the only dispensary within a 3 hour drive south and theres nothing going north. So mail order is literally the only option for the majority of consumers in our great nation.

Just a couple weeks ago there was a frail stage 4 cancer patient who travelled 3.5 hours to get to our dispensary. Wouldn’t mail order be the better option for her?

"This is making the street dealers do the happy dance no doubt in my mind. "

I don’t quite understand your reasoning behind this thought either. Studies have shown that legalization and age restriction is extremely effective is reducing adolescent use. And the systems here have been designed to directly compete with black market dealers when is comes to pricing and accessibility.

In fact, just last night I was having a session with the dispensary owner last night when the local dealer came by (black, grey, and white market guys in the same room smoking a J together…how cool is that first off). He told us he was getting out of the weed game cause there’s no business for him anymore. The dispensary took it all. So no, they aren’t dancing celebrating. They’re panicking and trying to diversify. He was actually trying to get a job at the dispensary, that should tell you how desperate he is.

This was happy news to my ears, because this was only evidence to me that the current system is working and the future system will work only better. Giving really easy ecommerce access to an ecommerce society is the best way to go forward in my opinion, for these and many other reasons.

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Absolutely! For those of us with credit not cash, solid addresses, don’t live with others, and don’t live in group homes or other residences, the online ordering is great. But there are so many people now who don’t have credit nor do they have debit/credit. Many consumers have cash that they want to spend and part of that is due to the paper trail.

Here’s one thought: Shopify stores its data in the US. Canadians crossing the border are asked if they use or have a part in the Cannabis industry. What happens if a person says no but then they’re able to somehow see that you purchased weed online? You’ve just lied to US border patrol.

Canadians deserve storefronts. Of course mail-order is a popular thing but by not having storefronts, you’ve effectively shrunk the customer base by a substantial amount. A friend worked in the legal program there and could list for you many situations where delivery of cannabis isn’t safe or even possible.

Any announcement that’s a step forward is a positive thing, I agree with you there. But, it’s truly a buzz-kill considering what other provinces are doing and considering what Ontario was planning to do from the beginning. One of the largest provinces won’t have storefronts while many others will.

To me, that’s not really a reason to celebrate. It’s a reason to shake my head.

However, if we can get Boveda in every order that would certainly help with preservation through snail mail.

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