Want to Smoke Legal Pot on Day 1 in Ontario? You're Out of Luck

(Bloomberg) -- Cannabis consumers in Canada’s most populous province will have to wait at least a day after legalization before they can smoke pot -- the legal stuff, anyway.

Ontario will have online-only sales of marijuana for the first several months after recreational use is legalized on Oct. 17, with private retail stores not expected to open until April. The government-run Ontario Cannabis Store website, ocs.ca, will go live at 12:01am on Oct. 17 and delivery will take one to three days, officials said.

The site, heavily focused on consumer education, will sell dried flower, oil, capsules and pre-rolls from 32 suppliers, as well as accessories and eventually seeds for people who want to grow their own plants. It will have about 70 products available on day one, with a goal of eventually having 150 for sale.

Products will be searchable by the content of THC and CBD -- the psychoactive and non-psychoactive compounds in cannabis -- plant types, their terpenes, or flavor profile, and price point. Customers can order up to 30 grams at a time and will have 14 days to return an unopened product if they’re not satisfied.

The site will ask users to verify their age three times before they make a purchase, and Canada Post, the national mail service, will have to verify it again upon delivery. However, someone other than the person who ordered the product can sign for it as long as they’re over 19 and live at the same household.

The Ontario Cannabis Store will be run by Shopify Inc., which will collect as little customer data as possible and will ensure that data remains in Canada. Purchases can initially be made by Visa or Mastercard only, and the word “cannabis” won’t appear on consumers’ credit-card statements.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kristine Owram in Toronto at kowram@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Courtney Dentch at cdentch1@bloomberg.net, David Scanlan, Chris Fournier

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