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A whirlwind of change has swept through Toronto in the last four years: In 2018, marijuana was still illegal. Now, as of this month, you can order it through Uber Eats. It’s the first time Uber Eats has signed up for this particular kind of delivery, in partnership with online marijuana marketplace Leafly, reports CBC News.
The program starts this week, allowing Toronto customers aged 19 and older to place cannabis orders on the Uber Eats app. Drivers for this service have been certified by Ontario’s cannabis retail education program, CannSell, and they have to check the customer’s age and sobriety upon delivery.
Now, logically, you’d want such an order accompanied by snacks, but it doesn’t work that way. The munchies delivery has to be separate, since cannabis stores must hire and train their own staff to do deliveries through Uber’s software. That means two deliveries would have to be arranged to have your cake and eat it too.
Another stipulation is that cannabis can only be delivered through authorized retail stores, during the hours that the store is open for business.
Uber Eats says this delivery rollout will combat illegal pot markets which cause trouble for licensed purveyors, and will curb impaired driving by having the goods brought straight to the door.
More than 40 percent of cannabis sales happened through illegal channels in Ontario, in January through March of this year, says the Ontario Cannabis Store, based on a survey through Statistics Canada (with possibly skewed data since respondents might not have felt comfortable admitting to illegal purchases – so the number is perhaps higher).
Starting in November 2021, Tokyo customers could pick up cannabis orders through Uber Eats at Tokyo Smoke stores, but this is the first time anyone in the world has been able to receive delivery at home through the company. During the early days of the pandemic, Ontario temporarily allowed such deliveries when cannabis stores had to close due to Covid restrictions, but earlier this year the deliveries became a permanent fixture along with regulatory protocols.