(This is a developing story will be updated as more information becomes available.)
Private-sector cannabis stores in Ontario, Canada’s largest market, will have to close their doors as of April 4 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the outlets with nowhere to turn as the government maintains a legal monopoly over online sales.
Cannabis producers in the province may stay operational.
Businesses not on the list must close their doors as of 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, April 4.
“Only online retail is permitted,” a spokeswoman for the Ontario Premier’s office said in a statement released to Marijuana Business Daily.
The closures could be devastating for Ontario’s roughly four dozen stores, because the province has long barred them from offering home cannabis delivery services to customers.
The spokeswoman confirmed the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) will be the province’s only remaining licensed marijuana retailer, and click-and-collect from private retailers will not be permitted.
The government-owned OCS is the only licensed online retailer of cannabis in Ontario.
Cannabis production workplaces fall under “agriculture and food production” on Ontario’s essential workplace list, the spokeswoman said, and may remain open.
January cannabis sales in Ontario increased 10% on a monthly basis to exceed 37 million Canadian dollars ($26 million) in January, according to the latest sales figures from Statistics Canada.
Solomon Israel is a reporter for Marijuana Business Daily, based in Winnipeg. He can be reached at [email protected]
For more of Marijuana Business Daily’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on the cannabis industry, click here.
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Originally posted on via Cannabis Industry News
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