It’s been a big week for cannabis news in Canada, to say the least.
The Cannabis Act was passed by Parliament and received royal assent, meaning legalization has the green light for Oct. 17. That’s later than originally expected, but still — it’s actually happening.
That leaves Canada’s 13 provinces and territories with just 116 days to finalize their plans for cannabis sales.
To that end, the government of British Columbia announced Friday that it bought a weed warehouse. All legal recreational cannabis sold in the province will go through a 70,000 square foot distribution centre in Richmond, B.C. The venture will employ about 130 staff across its logistics, shipping and receiving, customer-care and maintenance departments, according to a press release.
B.C.’s Liquor Distribution Branch, the government body that oversees the dispersal of booze (and now pot) across the Pacific Province, now has to learn how to operate a giant cannabis storage facility. That could be a real challenge: the quality of dried cannabis bud degrades over time, and seasoned cannabis consumers don’t want a product that’s old, crumbly and stale.
“Measures will be undertaken to guarantee the security and quality of all products stored in the facility, including regular inventory review and stock rotation,” says the LDB.
But the proof of the pudding is in the eating (or the smoking, in this case).
On top of that, the B.C. LDB needs to figure out how to sell recreational cannabis over the internet. Even though brick-and-mortar cannabis sales will be open to B.C.’s private sector, the province is monopolizing the lucrative rights to legal online cannabis sales.
For that, the B.C. LDB has tapped Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify. (No surprise there: Shopify is also running an online cannabis shop for Ontario’s government weed operation.) The company has promised to provide a system that will ensure underage consumers can’t buy legal weed illegally over the internet.
As the B.C. government enters the legal weed business, it has one extra challenge: public scrutiny. British Columbia is the epicentre of Canada’s cannabis culture, and British Columbians are already used to buying good weed at good prices.
If the government of British Columbia can’t offer those consumers a better shopping experience than they’re already getting from the illicit market, that big provincial weed warehouse might start looking like an expensive boondoggle.
Credit:Â www.theleafnews.com