licenses

Your cannabis licenses, please

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Health Canada recently released its regulations that aim to clarify the Cannabis Act, but at 390 pages long it’s a lot to cover, so this piece will serve as an introduction to licenses.

But first, a little background

Many outlets have pointed out that Health Canada’s regulations are a whopping 390 pages long, but in reality, it’s only half of that unless (for some reason) you decide to read it in both English and French.

There are 4 new sets of regulations coming into force with the Cannabis Act on Oct. 17 and they are:

  1. Cannabis Regulations
  2. New Industrial Hemp Regulations
  3. Qualifications for Designation as Analyst Regulations (Cannabis)
  4. Cannabis Act (Police Enforcement) Regulations

Also, at the same time that legalization kicks in, the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations, aka ACMPR, will be repealed along with the current Industrial Hemp Regulations.

Prominent pro-cannabis lawyer Kirk Tousaw, who just (somewhat controversially) announced he was working with Canopy Growth Corp., said on Twitter:

Licenses galore

There are six classes of licenses set out so far and three of those classes include multiple subclasses as shown below.

  • Cultivation
    • Micro-cultivation
    • Standard cultivation
    • Nursery
  • Processing
    • Micro-processing
    • Standard processing
  • Analytical testing
  • Sale
    • Medical (among others)
  • Research
  • Cannabis drug licence

An interesting distinction is that the Cultivation, Processing, and Sale licenses do not apply to cannabis drug licenses, which is its own separate class.

You have to let the authorities know before you even submit your application

Before applying for a license (whether it’s processing, licensing or sale), you must provide written notice to senior officials of the local government, local fire authority, and local police (either municipal or RCMP).

You must include your name, when you plan to submit your application, which license you’re applying for, and the address of the proposed location.

Your name, license number (and so much more) please

All licenses except for a Cannabis Drug License requires your name, license number, class (and subclass), the site address (including each building if there are more than one), the authorized activity (and any other authorized activity for the other buildings on site if applicable), any conditions that the Minister of Health finds appropriate, and when the license kicked in and went it expires.

License-holders must buy LP weed or else, with the only exceptions being…

  • If you declared the quantity of seeds and plants you’ll have when your license becomes effective

AND

  • If you’re not over the amount your licenses authorizes to possess

This declaration must be included in your application and written to the Minister.

Look out for part two of this ongoing series

In the next piece, we will take a deeper look into Cultivation Licenses.

 

Featured image courtesy of the Globe and Mail.

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