Nova Scotia announced on Thursday its plans to regulate legal cannabis sales when the recreational market opens next summer. The Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. will have full control over online and storefront sales, justice minister Mark Furey said at a news conference, following the strict regimes announced by Ontario and New Brunswick.
“The NSLC has the experience and expertise to distribute and sell cannabis, keeping it out of the hands of young people and making it legally available in a safe, regulated way,” Furey explained. Further details on how many storefronts will be open will be announced in the coming months.
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Nova Scotians over 19 years old will be allowed to purchase up to 30 grams of recreational cannabis and grow up to four plants at home, in line with the federal legislation. However unlike New Brunswick’s rules for legal week, Nova Scotia is not going to require consumers to keep their personal stash under lock and key.
The province has yet to say how its market will be supplied, and Furey says meeting the demand for the population of nearly 1 million might be challenging. New Brunswick has been inking exclusive supply deals with licensed cannabis producers.
Furey also vowed to root out the illegal cannabis dispensaries operating across the maritime province to make way for the legal storefronts.
Earlier this week, police in Sydney, Nova Scotia raided a cannabis dispensary and charged three people with drug-related and weapons offences. Two dispensaries were eventually shuttered. The raids prompted dozens to rally outside the courthouse where the charges were being heard arguing that shuttering the storefronts is preventing people from getting their medicine.
The accused dispensary workers will be back in court later this month to enter pleas.
Until the recreational market opens, only people in Canada with valid prescriptions can legally purchase their cannabis from more than 75 medical weed companies licensed by Health Canada.
