Features

Can you mail cannabis?

Published on January 29, 2019 by David Wylie

Wanting to sample strains available only in other provinces, we’ve been wondering whether it’s legal to ship cannabis across Canada.

Canadians can share up to 30 grams with other adults, and Canada Post seems to be cool with delivering it to your buds.

Being a regulated item, mailing pot does have certain delivery requirements.

“The sender needs to make sure the contents, packaging and labeling of their shipments follow all applicable legislation and regulations,” says Canada Post.

If you’re mailing cannabis, it needs to be sent with a tracking number.

You need to package it in “odour-proof, tamper-proof and leak-proof inner and outer packaging.”

The outer packaging, meanwhile, needs to be free of markings or advertising that reveals what’s inside.

The receiver also has a few responsibilities, including showing proof of age and providing a signature.

Still, highlighting the murky moat of misinformation, at least one major media organization has struggled with interpreting how The Cannabis Act factors in to mailing pot.

CTV News says mailing pot to a friend appears to be a crime due to sticky language:

“Canadians who want to share some of their cannabis by mailing it to a friend may want to reconsider. Under the Cannabis Act, it’s illegal to distribute marijuana to an organization. So although it’s permitted to give less than 30 grams of cannabis to an adult friend, it’s not OK to send it to them via the mail or a courier because organizations can’t legally possess or distribute the drug without explicit authorization.”

We aren’t lawyers, but from what we’ve read, you should be just fine sending cannabis through the mail as long as you keep to Canada Post’s rules.

Cannabis swap?

Seeing certain strains being posted on our favourite subreddits (r/TheOCS, r/RecPics) that we don’t have access to in our BC HQ, we thought a cannabis swap may be a useful idea.

We floated the idea online and got some interesting feedback, including the opinion that mailing cannabis is illegal – which prompted our feature story today.

One person pointed out the idea does exist, but is used to swap homegrown.

“I like your idea. I’d be interested in trying BC cannabis store products like Whistler’s CBD shark Shock or one of the Tantalus Labs products,” said one person.

Another noted the idea of exchanging cannabis is “clearly a dark grey area.”

What are your thoughts? Email [email protected]