New Proposal Would Allow Canadians to Receive Cannabis by Mail

Canadians could legally order recreational cannabis through the mail in unregulated areas, if Canada’s federal Finance Minister gets his way. Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau released a backup plan Monday for Canadian Provinces who are not ready to pass regulations in time for Canada’s July 1, 2018 deadline. The cannabis-by-mail plan would allow patients who live in areas that have no locally-regulated distribution or taxes to receive their medicine via mail.

Ordering cannabis through the mail could save money for both consumers and the business owners. “The mail-order model would probably provide the lowest cost to the consumer, but it’s very much uncertain as to whether the provincial governments will permit that, given that from what we’ve heard they’ve been more focused on bringing some sort of retail distribution into the whole process,” said Analyst Neil Maruoka.

Provinces that have no retail regime in place in time for the nationwide sales of recreational cannabis would have a second option. Alberta, for instance, has provincial no sales tax in place. Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci admitted that the timeline is an issue.

The mail order system is already legal in Canada for qualifying medical cannabis patients. A mail order system would allow provincial governments to have better access to mining local sales data. Provinces have only until July 1, 2018 to set up local regulations before the implementation of regulated recreational cannabis. “We accept that there’s much more work to be done, but we’ve started down that path and we are going to work to get to a conclusion by July, 2018,” Morneau told the press.

Local Canadian leaders have expressed concerns over how medical cannabis will be distributed and taxed on a local level. The main goal is to keep taxes on legal cannabis sales low and consistent across Province borders. There is no legal way to order cannabis through the mail in the United States, however Canada is trailblazing the way with a lenient approach to mail-order sales.