Cannabis sales brisk as new era begins
REGINA This won’t be Connor Hamilton’s first time smoking weed, but he appreciates the significance of a new era of cannabis in Canada.
“It’s a big day,” he said.
The Regina resident was one of about 30 people who were waiting in line outside Eden on Wednesday morning. The store is the first legal marijuana dispensary to open in the Regina area. It’s located within the RM of Edenwold, near Pilot Butte.
Hamilton already has a prescription for medical marijuana. The fact recreational pot is now completely legal won’t change a lot for him, except when it comes to where he buys it.
“It’s nice to see the money kind of going to a better place, I guess you could say. It’s honestly not going to change a ton for me personally. I’ll probably start only buying my pot from legal sources now,” said Hamilton.
At the moment, Eden is the only option for Reginans hoping to buy marijuana legally. Three of the stores coming to the city confirmed they wouldn’t open Wednesday, and another three are also not ready to open their doors.
Joshua Lys, who was the first person to enter Eden when the doors opened, said he also plans to go legit with his buying habits.
“It puts it back in the pockets of people who had actually taken the time to go through the right processes,” said Lys, who also made the drive from Regina.
Lys believes legalized marijuana will open up more economic opportunities, and allows more people to give marijuana a try to see if it’s right for them.
After the doors opened at 10 a.m., the inside of Eden quickly became packed with customers. The crowd of people of varying walks of life and adult ages rivalled those amassed for a Boxing Day sale. Except, one man asked media not to capture images of him at the store because he was supposed to be at work.
The store was selling single-gram quantities for $19 — well above the standard street price of $10 for a single-gram.
For larger quantities, prices range from $36-$65 for 3.5 grams of marijuana or $74-$82 for seven grams. That differential caused some concerns over whether or not legalization will be able to successfully stamp out the black market.
Hamilton and Lys weren’t surprised Regina didn’t have any shops open in time for legalization day. Lys said he knew they had to go through a lot of bureaucracy to get up and running.
When Oct. 17 finally struck, only seven stores opened in the province, despite the fact there were 51 private proponents selected this summer to open up retail cannabis outlets. Beyond the shop in Edenwold, two cannabis stores in North Battleford were open Wednesday along with stores in Esterhazy, Martensville, Moose Jaw and Yorkton.
The Saskatchewan government stressed Wednesday they had asked the federal government for more time to prepare ahead of legalization and pointed out other provinces were in a similar situation of having a small number of stores opening.
Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) Minister Gene Makowsky told reporters it is an “ongoing process” and the province is doing “the best it can” to have stores open.
“I don’t think it’s a huge surprise that there’s some supply issues when a new system is turned on overnight,” Makowsky said.
While the province is not putting a cap on the number of private wholesalers allowed to operate in Saskatchewan, it did cap the number of retail stores at 51 — a number that will be reviewed in 12 to 14 months, according to Makowsky.
“It’s directly related to social issues on the supply side, wholesalers can’t sell to individuals, they can only sell to retailers, so we want to have limits on retailers,” he said, adding the province wanted to “err on the side of caution” because it is a new legal product on the market.
But the Opposition NDP criticized the province for “dragging its heels” on the rules and requirements ahead of legalization.
“We’ve seen SLGA moving fairly slow in terms of approving people’s businesses and permits. It’s leaving municipalities and business owners in a difficult situation, so it’s providing a pretty significant challenge for the province,” said NDP justice critic Nicole Sarauer
Attorney General Don Morgan told reporters, “It would have been better for our province had (legalization) not happened.”
Hamilton is hoping that with marijuana now being legal, attitudes around the drug will start to change.
“The whole stigma is going to start to go away,” he said. “It’ll be less of a taboo subject, and hopefully in 10 or 15 years we’re talking about cannabis like we’re talking about booze,” said Hamilton.
Christy Salter, a resident from rural Saskatchewan who was waiting in line, offered the same comparison to liquor as Hamilton.
“I believe it’s in the same boat as alcohol,” said Salter. She was anxious and excited about marijuana becoming legal. “Glad it’s here,” said Salter. “It’s history in the making — and I’m part of it.”
I don’t think it’s a huge surprise that there’s some supply issues when a new system is turned on overnight.