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Montrose Cannabis responds to charges of breaking delivery rules
Published on December 23, 2024 by Pat Bulmer

An Ontario cannabis e-tailer has discovered Canada Post and an Uber Eats delivery guy are the same thing to industry regulators.
Montrose Cannabis of Pickering, Ont., is facing a seven-day suspension for using unlicensed third-party delivery services and committing other violations of Ontario’s Cannabis Licence Act (CLA), according to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario.
“I acknowledge every single thing,” said owner-operator Nick Baksh in a telephone interview.
Under the Act, cannabis can only be delivered by the “licence-holder or an employee who has successfully completed the required education and training,” a commission news release explained.
Baksh’s third-party delivery services for his cannabis orders are Canada Post and, sometimes, other large courier companies.
That means the delivery guy on a bicycle in downtown Toronto is lumped in with large shipping companies that move tonnes of product.
“I think shipping is a different logistical method (compared to deliveries),” Baksh said.
Baksh had been shipping for some time without problems before a complaint, then a second complaint, was filed. He said he followed all the rules and paperwork to ship with Canada Post.
“We’ve been shipping for a while now, then one day I got a complaint,” he said.
“I was spending a lot of money with Canada Post. Everything was legit. They ship millions of dollars of cannabis every day.”
The Ontario Cannabis Store uses Canada Post to ship products to retailers. “I’m buying the products from OCS,” said Baksh, at a loss to explain the contradiction.
Montrose Cannabis sold to other provinces, exceeded limit
Further, the commission found: “… evidence was also discovered that the store had been unlawfully selling its product to customers in Alberta, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Quebec, and Yukon. Under the CLA, licensees are not permitted to sell cannabis outside of Ontario.”
And “finally, Montrose Cannabis was also determined to have been selling cannabis in quantities exceeding the legal maximum of 30 grams of dried cannabis or its equivalent in a single transaction.” Repeat violations were also discovered, the commission said.
“Once it has a stamp, it should be able to travel,” answered Baksh.
Legal cannabis products are required to have an excise stamp for their province.
Layoffs coming due to suspension
Baksh has 15 days to appeal. Otherwise, a suspension will take place Jan. 3-10. It looks like the suspension will go ahead and Baksh is preparing for it—customers won’t be able to make purchases during that time.
“Now I have to do some layoffs. It’s such a hit to the business.”
Montrose ships a lot of product to Northern Ontario, where cannabis stores are few and far between. He’s pretty sure it’s a large market for the black-market retailers. “That’s the real competition,” he said.
He said online shopping is how many people like to browse and buy their cannabis now.
“I run one of Canada’s ultra-premium e-commerce web-stores and I can’t ship,” he said.
Shipping rules are less strict for medical marijuana and in other provinces. “If I was in BC, I wouldn’t be having this problem.” (Alberta too, he said.)
“We’re thinking of getting our medicinal sales licence which allows us to ship across the country, but that’s going to take six months.”
30-gram limit needs to be lifted
The 30-gram limit also needs changing, Baksh said.
“It’s just so limiting. It forces people to go back to the illicit market. I came from there. I had friends who used to buy quarter-pounds and I wouldn’t see them for a month or two.
“These ancient things—like, oh, you can’t ship, oh, you can’t do over 30 grams—compared to alcohol, you can go an buy the whole damn aisle, the whole store. You can buy unlimited amounts of alcohol, so why the limits?
“This industry is so tired of waiting. We cannot be limited to our local area, it just doesn’t make any sense.”
Baksh said he’s been told there will be no updates to Ontario cannabis laws before an election anticipated in 2025.
Ironically, business has boomed since word got out about the AGCO’s actions.
“I’m pretty happy that they didn’t fine me. I respect the AGCO. Their hands are tied,” he said.
“When licensees fail to meet their obligations, the AGCO will take decisive action to uphold the integrity of Ontario’s cannabis retail system,” said Dr. Karin Schnarr, registrar and CEO of the AGCO, in a statement.
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