Pot delivery coming to Ontario during COVID-19 pandemic

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Weed on wheels is coming to Ontario – the legal kind anyway.

Days after shutting down legal cannabis retailers as “non-essential” workplaces, the Ford government announced late Tuesday it will allow curbside pickup options and delivery.

Attorney General Doug Downie brought the issue to cabinet on Tuesday afternoon seeking an order to allow the retailers to still serve customers from 9 a.m. to 1 1p.m. as long as customers don’t enter the store. Cabinet approved the order and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario enacted the emergency order.

No more than 30 grams of dried cannabis will be allowed to be delivered or picked up.

Retailers would still be required to check ID to ensure the person purchasing is of age and those doing delivery or curbside pickup must have completed the same training required for staff working in cannabis retail stores.

Omar Khan leads the cannabis sector for government relations firm Hill & Knowlton. He and others in the business organized a push to change the government’s mind on closing the pot shops.

“Over the last few days a coalition of dozens of business owners reached out to the government and made it clear that if tools like curbside pickup and direct delivery were not made available to the industry many jobs would be at risk and legal operators would lose significant market share to those who choose to break the law,” Khan said.

In fact, as the legal stores were closing down, illegal shops and delivery services were popping up.

Cameron Brown, spokesman for retailer The Hunny Pot, described signs showing up on their retail locations advertising illegal pot businesses right away.

“I go up to our store in the Junction and there is a sticker up saying text to get weed,” Brown said in an interview on Sunday. “We are pushing people to unregulated product.”

The desire to make sure black-market pot dealers didn’t take market share away from legal retailers was a big factor in the decision to allow the pickup and delivery options similar to what bars and restaurants can offer.

During this period, the government is placing a temporary pause on the issuing of retail store authorizations.

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