Weed to your door? Manitoba's cannabis regulator hazy on delivery rules

The owner of a new weed delivery business is convinced it will be offering a legal service to Winnipeggers when it arrives, but the province's cannabis regulator is not so sure. 

Save the Drive is a new mobile app that wants to do for cannabis what Skip the Dishes has done for dinnertime.

Customers will use their phone to browse product from various dispensaries, place their order and make a payment. The "personal shopper," as the app describes its delivery drivers, will go to the pot shop with your shopping list in hand, buy what you want and deliver it to your door. 

"We're not selling cannabis in any way," said Chanel Graham, the Edmonton-based entrepreneur behind the fledging delivery business set to launch in six Canadian cities. "What we're selling is a shopping service."

The Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manitoba is hesitant to say the same. 

Provincial regulations dictate only one of its few chosen retailers can operate an online shop once marijuana can legally be sold on Oct. 17. Delta 9 Cannabis and National Access Cannabis previously told CBC News they will have at least one store ready by that date. 

Graham doesn't think her app is like an online store. Although her customers can browse stock, pick what they want to buy and pay for it through Save the Drive, Graham says the actual transaction occurs not with the cellphone app but at the dispensary.

"What you're doing is putting in an order for somebody to go do your shopping for you," said Graham, who was in Winnipeg last month to attend a cannabis expo. 

Unlike Skip the Dishes, Graham's service is not in partnership with the retailers. She is not giving a share of her revenue to any pot shop, nor is she working with them to populate her app's listing of products to buy.

Instead, the personal shoppers will be responsible for updating the app with what dispensaries are offering, she said.

Graham expects to have 20 drivers on the roads of Winnipeg by the date of legalization. A number of drivers have already signed up, she said in an interview last week. 

Customers will pay as much as $7 per delivery for the convenience.

Where's the point of sale?

Whether the enterprise is permissible at all rests on what part is considered a transaction — the money exchange through the app, or at the store.

"Honestly, I think it would take interpretation," said Kristianne Dechant, manager of communications and research at the LGCA.

"We'll have clearer answers after we see the extent of businesses that pop up, but because this is all so new a lot of these are really based on legal interpretation, and, as the authority, we don't make those decisions."

Dechant said the regulator is telling entrepreneurs to check with a lawyer — but they have little to rely on.

The suitable part of Manitoba's cannabis regulations that apply to online orders is a single sentence: "A licensee may only accept online remote orders that are submitted to a website operated by the licensee."

Manitoba's standards for third-party delivery services makes no mention of e-commerce platforms.

Dechant said the LGCA is not trying to police anybody and will refer concerns that hold weight to the authorities.

Sean MacDonald, a professor at University of Manitoba's Asper School of Business, believes Save the Drive follows the rule of law in this province, but says he can't be sure.

He likens the recreational cannabis market to a wild west, with too many unknowns.

"I think that it will require some clarification, if not by the government then ultimately by the courts, if this really catches on."

Unanswered questions

He says it's unfortunate the LGCA cannot answer if a business is legal or not.

"The only pass I would give them is they may not know themselves, but they should."

At least one other cannabis delivery business — Marijuana Mobile — is seeking to set up in the Winnipeg market. 

CBC's efforts to contact the startup, which was seeking drivers on an online job board last month in Winnipeg and Saskatoon, came up empty. In the ad, they offered drivers $12-15 an hour to deliver recreational and medical cannabis. 

Anyone delivering cannabis, whether it is the retailer themselves or a third party, must check customers' ID to ensure they are 19 or older, as per Manitoba law. The store will be held responsible if any contractor does not follow this stipulation, Dechant said.