Features

Why you can’t buy a six-pack of cannabis beverages

Published on June 4, 2020 by David Wylie

My mini fridge is stocked with cannabis drinks.

Getting them in the first place, however, was difficult. The challenge you’ll come across while trying to stock up is cannabis equivalencies – that’s the amount of cannabis said to be contained in Cannabis 2.0 products.

Houseplant’s Grapefruit Sparkling Water, for instance, has the equivalency of 5.1 grams of cannabis per drink.

Since the Cannabis Act prohibits purchases over 30 grams, you’ll only be able to buy up to five drinks per order. You can’t even get a six pack.

While stores could sell you more by ringing through multiple orders, you’re technically breaking the law by having more than five with you at a time. Even more cumbersome is that if you’re ordering the drinks online, through the BC Cannabis Store for instance, you’ll have a $6-shipping fee tacked on to every order.

I’m not the only person to grumble about it.

Kirk Tousaw on Twitter popped into my feed, saying, “Let’s talk cannabis equivalency ratios for a second. Two separate orders below (placed on same day) because I can only buy five cans at a time and can’t get anything else if I do… Does this make any sense at all?”

Here’s his side-by-side comparison:

In my case, I ordered five 2.5 mg Houseplant drinks, which totalled 25.5 grams of cannabis; I then filled my basket with six 10-mg Bhang dark chocolates, which totalled 3.96 grams of cannabis — for a grand total of 29.46 grams, just under the 30-gram limit.

Do you see the stupidity of that?

We do agree with the sentiment, Canada is building a roadmap for the world to follow. But this little bit of regulation is a clogged up intersection that needs to be replaced with a free-flowing roundabout.

What’s the best drink so far?

As for the drinks themselves, I’ve tried Tweed’s Houndstooth and Soda and its Bakerstreet and Ginger. I’ve also tried Houseplant Grapefruit and Sparkling Water, and Everie’s Lemon and Lime drink.

The Houseplant drink is far and away my favourite. The grapefruit smell is pleasant and the taste is fresh and makes it easy (too easy?) to knock a few back.

The Houndstooth and Soda tasted a lot like nutmeg and weed — on its own, it’s not an overly appetizing flavour. We wrote more about the experience here. Some have suggested adding some fresh lime to brighten it up.

The Bakerstreet and Ginger was much nicer than its bland counterpart, perhaps because of the significant difference in the amount of sugar.

Having only small amounts of THC per drink, I was pleasantly surprised to feel a gentle effect off of two drinks.

Lastly, the Everie drink tasted great, but at only 10 mg of CBD, it had pretty much zero effect.

But wait, there’s more…

More drinks are on their way to BC – if they aren’t there by the time you read this, anyway. Kelowna’s own THC BioMed just announced Thursday it has shipped Canada’s first cannabis “shot,” THC Kiss. They come in 30 ml bottles, in other words, a fluid ounce.

The first order is available in BC, with the second order to Saskatchewan.

“The province of Alberta is currently in negotiations with THC Biomed to make THC Kiss available to the Alberta legal adult recreational cannabis market,” said the company.

Meanwhile, Canopy Growth’s first Deep Space drinks dropped in Newfoundland. They are 10 mg of THC and have been compared to mixers.

We’ll let you know when we try them.