It may have taken months to get product, but otherwise the cannabis business is booming, with sales steadily increasing,
“It was a bit of a surprise we didn’t get cannabis for seven months, but we pushed through and we’re doing excellent now,” said Kate Gilbert, owner of Micro Gold Retail Cannabis on North Railway Street – the first retail cannabis location to have opened in Okotoks.
She said even though two other stores have opened their doors in the last few months (Canna Cabana on Stockton Ave. and Plantlife Canada on Southridge Drive), sales at Micro Gold have only dropped by one-third.
The cannabis economy is expanding all the time, she said. At Micro Gold, prices are comparable to black market and medical prices, making the retail store competitive in the market.
Sales are beginning to climb across the province. According to Stats Canada, Alberta had $14.1 million in sales in March, increasing over four months to $21.7 million in July.
Gilbert said the benefit of retail operations is the ability for customers to find a variety of cannabis strains and hand-pick the effects they’re looking for.
“We have any chemistry you’re looking for that would suit you,” said Gilbert.
She said their customers range in age from 18 to 85, and they’re all after something different. While some seniors opt for classic THC strains to smoke, she said others enjoy CBD (cannabidiol), which has little to no psychoactive effect but is known for its therapeutic properties.
The most unpredictable part of the business is the introduction of edibles, which were technically legalized Oct. 17, 2019. Gilbert said according to AGLC they won’t hit the shelves until after Christmas.
“It’s going to be amazing,” she said. “There are going to be non-alcoholic THC beers, CBD makeups, ice cream syrup, nasal sprays, breath sprays, breath strips.”
Statistics from the United States show edibles accounted for half the cannabis sales, she said.
It’s important to ensure they’re handled with care to keep everyone safe, she said. Some ingestible oils, like shatter (a butane hash oil extraction) can be pretty potent, and the government is still working on dosage levels, she said.
“When you get things like shatter and hash you have to be very careful because it’s like the cannabis version of moonshine,” said Gilbert.
She said people should be grateful for the government’s due diligence with the cannabis market. Through testing, customers at retail stores know there are no additives on their product, making it a safer choice than the black market, she said.
Gilbert said the first year has been an interesting ride.
“It’s been a lot of learning because we are kind of writing the procedures manual, because there were no stores before us that we could look to,” she said.
That won’t be an issue for future retail cannabis locations in Okotoks, which will have Micro Gold, Canna Cabana and Plantlife to look to while opening their doors.
Right now, the Town of Okotoks has an additional four approved development permits and one received this month, which is currently under review. Of those, three have been issued building permits for tenant leasehold improvements but none have received business licences or AGLC permits.
“We received the latest one on Oct. 9, so we recently had a development permit application,” said Craig Davies, development planner for the Town of Okotoks. “We’re still seeing applications coming in.”
From an enforcement perspective, the first year of legalization has gone fairly well, said Okotoks Municipal Enforcement manager Peter Stapley.
“We have had a few files and we’ve had a few people we’ve dealth with,” said Stapley. “We approach it from the education side, though we do have enforcement issues.”
He said the smoking bylaw helps manage cannabis consumption for now, but he’s unsure what it will look like in future with edibles coming on board in the new year. Without information from the Province on how the market will be handled it’s difficult to have a plan, he said.
“We’re still figuring it out,” said Stapley. “We’re hoping this week to have a talk with someone from AGLC so we can get a better insight and try to move forward with that one, but it’s going to take a while.”
He said currently licenced cannabis vendors have to re-apply for a licence according to Health Canada requirements, and the process could take at least 60 days.
“I would assume they’re going to see a lot of applications,” said Stapley.
He said Okotoks Municipal Enforcement is hoping to partner with AGLC and the Province to develop an education campaign around all types of cannabis in the near future.
