Canada’s Ontario to sell marijuana in province-run stores, online
Ontario unveiled plans on Friday to sell recreational marijuana through government-run stores and online, making Canada’s most populous province the first to respond to the federal government’s move to legalize use by mid-2018.
The province will create a cannabis control board and open up to 80 stores by July 2019, similar to but separate from those that sell liquor in the province. Online sales will be available to Ontarians as of July 2018 only through a government-run website.
The province plans to open 40 stores by July 1 next year and will target areas with a concentration of illegal pot dispensaries, which have proliferated since the federal government said it would legalize the drug.
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Ontario said decisions on pricing and taxation will be made once the federal government provides further details. Canada’s Liberal government has said it wants to make sure the price is kept low enough to encourage users away from the black market.
Ontario’s finance minister, Charles Sousa, said at a news conference he expects revenue from marijuana to be modest initially and grow over time.
The minimum age for recreational marijuana use, purchase and possession in Ontario will be 19. Earlier this year, the federal government in its original legislation had proposed a legal age of 18.
The federal government’s plans, which will be reviewed by lawmakers when they return to parliament later this month, would make Canada the first Group of Seven country to legalize recreational marijuana use nationally, and second in the world after Uruguay. Medical marijuana is already legal in Canada.
While the federal government wants pot legalized by July of next year, it left many of the details up to the provinces. Stocks of marijuana producers held on to earlier gains after Ontario’s announcement, with Canopy Growth Corp up 3.2 percent at C$9.30 and Aurora Cannabis Inc up 4 percent at C$2.59.
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