Another Cannabis Update
This post is a quick update to our past posts on the legalization of cannabis. You can see everything we have written about the legalization of cannabis and how to prepare your workplace here.
More changes are afoot to Ontario’s planned rollout of recreational cannabis. The Doug Ford government has reversed the previous administration’s plan to sell cannabis through government-owned stores only. The latest is that cannabis will be available for sale through the government owed Ontario Cannabis Store online only on October 17, 2018. It is projected that private retailers will be able to sell recreational cannabis starting April 1, 2019. The private stores will be “tightly regulated.” The Ontario Cannabis Store will be the wholesale supplier to these private stores. Private stores currently selling cannabis are doing so illegally.
The Canadian government’s legalization of recreational cannabis has again lately been a hot news item. Initially, there were some reports that recreational cannabis was to be legalized this week, by July 1, 2018. For a variety of reasons that date has been pushed back. Legalization is now set for October 17, 2018. 
With the legalization of marijuana looming on the horizon this summer, concerned employers are thinking about how to keep drugs out of the workplace. While random workplace drug testing might seem like an attractive option, in Canada the law remains unsettled on what’s permitted. The most prominent legal battle over random drug testing in Canada has been largely centered on Alberta’s oil sands.
