Canadian Cannabis Regulations Are a Mix of Capitalism and Nanny State

Canadian Cannabis Regulations – A Tale of Two Canadas

Now that the Canadian Cannabis Regulations have been nailed down by most of the provinces, Canadians can take some comfort that we won’t be thrust into the abyss of reefer madness come July 1, or any other date when they all finally get up and running. The focus is absolutely on control and harm reduction as opposed to access and market development. You won’t see many operations like the one shown below outside of the Western provinces.

Some of the provinces are still accepting retail applications as of writing this, so there’s no way we will have a fully functioning distribution system when the switch gets turned on. Nunavut doesn’t have a plan and won’t until 2019 which makes my earlier predictions not that far off.

Here are the regulations broken down by province. The one thing that must be pointed out is that the government has set up a system where they will both control supply and prices, and reap the majority of the profits. By establishing monopoly distribution entities who will rest between the Licensed Producers and the cannabis retailers, they ensure they can drive their supply price down (due to their monopoly buying power; LP’s won’t have anywhere else to sell their weed) and given that the retailers can only buy from them, they get to set the floor price at retail indirectly.

Canadian Cannabis Regulations by Province (Adult Use; Non-medicinal)

Prov	Legal Age	Limits	Retail Approach	Distributor	Home Grow	Consumption Restrictions	Online Sales?
BC	19	30 g	Gov’t + Private (won’t limit how many)	Government	4 plants. Landlords may prohibit	Same as tobacco	Gov’t Only
AB	18	30 g	Private	“	“	“	“
SK	19	30 g	Private	None. LPs sell direct to retail	“	No motor vehicles or public places	Retailer Websites
MB	19	30 g	4 Private entities	Government	Prohibited	No motor vehicles	Retailer Websites
ON	19	30 g	Government (40 stores at start)	Government	4 plants.	No vehicles, enclosed public spaces, or workplaces.	Government
PQ	18	30 g	Government	Government	Prohibited	No workplaces, post-secondary institutions, enclosed public spaces.	Government
NB	18	30 g	Government	Government	4 plants. Must be in locked enclosure	Private homes (consent of occupant required).	Government
PEI	19	30 g	Government	Government	4 plants	Private homes only.	Government
NS	19	30 g	Government	Government	4 plants	No indoor public places or most outdoor public places.	Government
NL	19	30 g	Private	Government	4 plants	Private homes only.	Government
NU	19	30 g	Online Only until 2019	Government	4 plants	No vehicles, schools, hospitals, playgrounds, or where tobacco smoking is prohibited.	Government
NT	19	30 g	Government	Government	4 plants	No vehicles or where smoking is prohibited	Government
YT	19	30 g	Government first. Private Later.	Government	4 plants	Private Residences and their grounds	Government

Of course the medical cannabis regime is, for now at least, quite separate. That system currently allows for Licensed Producers to ship directly to customers, bypassing the government. It remains to be seen whether patients – who won’t have any access to medical cannabis through brick and mortar stores – will move over the the adult use system. Given that there are taxes on medical cannabis, and the lack of any retail access, this is quite likely. Eliminating taxation of cannabis for medical purposes, and more ubiquitous insurance coverage for it, will be required to keep a vibrant, patient-focused medical system in place.