Oct. 17, 2018 marks a historic day for Canada as the 95-year prohibition on cannabis came to an end.
It was greeted by long queues of southern Albertans as they eagerly awaited the opening of one of Medicine Hat’s three licensed cannabis stores early Wednesday morning.
“It’s going to be really cool that I can walk into a retail store and pick up the recreational drug or medicine that I need and I can go home and not have to worry about the police stopping me,” Coady Bustin said as he waited for the official opening of the store.
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However, it wasn’t only Medicine Hat locals in attendance.
With no stores opening in Lethbridge in time to commemorate the day, it was a moment one Lethbridge resident didn’t mind travelling to be a part of, especially after advocating for this day for most of his life.
“I believe it has been a very long time coming,” Austin Moloughney said.
He was first in line at Westside Weed on Wednesday morning.
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“I’ve been a medicinal user for many years. I find that it helps me to remain calm and helps to control my anxiety a lot and it helps me to sleep, there’s so many different benefits to using cannabis in the right way and responsibly.”
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Stocking almost 10,000 grams of marijuana in anticipation of the big day, store owner Keith Alhm was excited for Oct. 17 but said he wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
“We’re very excited this day has finally come,” Alhm said.
“I do have a lot of product in stock today — can’t say for sure if it will last a day or a week.
“But we can order once a week so hopefully we’ll have more in stock within the next week if we run out anytime soon.”
At 10 a.m. Westside Weed officially opened to the public and more than four hours later, was still seeing customers lining up out the door, much like the other two cannabis retailers in Medicine Hat.
However, besides all the excitement of the day, there are some potential issues for store owners in the future.
As Alhm explained, following the guidelines provided by the Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis commission (AGLC) products in his store are currently sitting at a slightly higher price than marijuana found on the black market. That means some potential consumers may still shy away from legal retailers.
“We are going to try and compete with black market prices. We want to try and keep an average cost per gram around $10,” said Alhm.
“If getting my fix legally is more onerous than the black market, then I will return to the black market,” added customer Coady Bustin.
“For anybody to assume that I would pay an extra cost to do this, I mean we don’t do that in any other segment of society. You don’t pay more for your booze to drink, so yeah the black market is going to continue, the hope is the retail will be run well enough that, that’s no longer an option.”
Advertising may also be tricky for retailers as AGLC rules prohibit the promotion of prices, testimonials or endorsements and claims of positive or negative impacts of the product.
“The advertising rules from the government and the product description and displays are very limited, so you can only say strictly fact of the product and that would be THC levels, or CBD levels,” said Alhm.
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