A group advocating on behalf of municipalities and some First Nations across B.C. wants the province to share its cannabis excise tax revenue.

The Union of B.C. Municipalities' outgoing president Maja Tait said Friday that 99 per cent of the group's 189 members voted in favour of seeking a portion of the revenue this week at a convention.

The excise cannabis tax is paid by licensed cannabis producers when their products are delivered to a retailer or customer and the federal government retains 25 per cent of the money up to $100 million a year.

The remaining 75 per cent is given to provinces and territories, which have the option to pass it along to municipalities.

Municipal governments are once again appealing to the B.C. government for a share of the cannabis excise tax revenue to help deal with the extra costs and responsibilities they’ve taken on since marijuana legalization.

It’s the fifth year in a row that delegates at the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention have voted on a resolution about receiving some of the federal tax that is applied to medical and non-medical cannabis.

The federal government passes on 75 per cent of the excise tax revenue to the provinces and territories, and although three provinces have deals to share that cash with their local governments, B.C. does not.

The B.C. government says it will launch three cannabis programs over the next two years to help small and Indigenous growers compete with larger rivals.

A farm−gate program would allow growers to sell their products at stores located at their production sites. 

Another program would allow small cannabis producers, licensed by Health Canada, to deliver cannabis directly to authorized retailers.

The government did not say how it will define small producers, but says nurseries will be included in the policy. 

Both programs are expected to launch in 2022, a year after the province hopes to start an initiative that will highlight cannabis from Indigenous producers in stores and online. 

When Canada legalized cannabis in 2018, there was so much thought that went into production and logistics that packaging became an afterthought. Until it wasn’t.

Excessive, bulky packaging and plastic containers soon became the most uncool elements that both licensed producers and consumers had to deal with.

As per federal Cannabis Regulations, there are several mandates that licensed producers have to accommodate while packaging and selling cannabis products for the masses.

Alberta, Ontario and Quebec have committed to share legal cannabis revenues with local governments, and in their fourth year of asking, B.C. municipalities expect their province to do the same.

The first industrially-zoned cannabis facility approved by the City of Delta is now up for sale.

The 25,000 square-foot facility, licensed for cannabis cultivation, processing, and medical sales, is owned by Zenabis Global.

Four years ago, Scarlett Nelson was sent into a panic when she learned she was pregnant. But the unexpected news gave her the motivation to stop injecting meth and heroin before her baby was born.

So Nelson turned to the support that helped her stay in recovery for more than a year before she started using again — cannabis.

“I was at my rock bottom. My getting pregnant was kind of a god-save,” said Nelson, her now-four-year-old daughter shouting gleefully in the background. “And cannabis helped make that possible.”

It took the edge off her withdrawal symptoms, helped her focus through her ADHD and sleep at night as she dealt with the stress of her pregnancy and leaving an abusive relationship.

Don’t be duped by illicit cannabis companies.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) received over 60,000 consumer inquiries for the industry, with many trying to get details on trustworthy online retailers.

In April, the BC Bureau received several complaints regarding Canadian Hemp Co. and another called Hello Ganja.

Canadian Hemp Co. posed as an online cannabis retailer with a New Westminster address on its website, but many buyers never received their goods after purchasing them online, or received something they didn’t order.

British Columbians have never bought so much legal weed. 

The province’s legal cannabis retailers sold $29,393,000 worth of recreational marijuana products in June – almost seven times the $4,230,000 in revenue that they generated in June, 2019, Statistics Canada revealed August 21.

This is the sixth straight month when the province’s legal cannabis retailers have sold a record-high value of products.

A similar trend is happening nationwide, although the year-over-year rise in sales is not as substantial as it is in B.C.

Canadian legal cannabis retailers sold more than $201 million worth of cannabis in June, which is about 119% more than the nearly $91.7 million in cannabis sales that the nation’s cannabis retailers sold in the same month a year ago.