Uber Eats to offer cannabis deliveries
The cannabis will be delivered by locally licensed CannSell certified staff
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Uber Eats will become the first major third-party delivery platform to offer cannabis to customers in Toronto, Canada.
Under a partnership with online cannabis marketplace Leafly, customers in Toronto, ages 19 or older, will be able to place orders from locally licensed retailers in the Uber Eats app and have it delivered right to their front door.
An Uber Eats delivery person walks downtown Toronto, January 21. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"We are partnering with industry leaders like Leafly to help retailers offer safe, convenient options for people in Toronto to purchase legal cannabis for delivery to their homes, which will help combat the illegal market and help reduce impaired driving," Lola Kassim, General Manager of Uber Eats Canada, said in a statement.
The illegal market accounts for over 50% of all nonmedical cannabis sales in Ontario, according to the companies. An October 2021 research report from Public First found one in seven cannabis users, or 14%, have admitted to driving a vehicle within two hours of consuming cannabis.
BIDEN'S PARDON OF MARIJUANA OFFENSES WON'T APPLY TO MILITARY
In the Uber Eats app, users can select the "Cannabis" category or search for one of the licensed cannabis retailers. Customers will receive a warning that they must be of legal age to enter the virtual storefront and must be within the delivery radius of the licensed cannabis retailer to place the order.
Once the order is placed, Uber Eats will send a notification when the retailer accepts it and give an estimated time of delivery. A customer's age and sobriety will be verified upon delivery.
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In accordance with provincial regulations, the cannabis will be delivered by the licensed retailers' own CannSell certified staff. Participating cannabis retailers will include Hidden Leaf Cannabis, Minerva Cannabis and Shivaa's Rose.
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The move in Canada comes after President Joe Biden made several announcements on marijuana reform earlier this month.
On Oct. 6, Biden said he was pardoning all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana and urged governors to do the same with regard to state offenses. The president also said he would ask Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Attorney General Merrick Garland to initiate the administrative process to expeditiously review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.
Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act — the category reserved for the most dangerous substances.
Cannabis plants grow at Glass House Brands greenhouse near Camarillo, Calif., on Fri., Aug. 19, 2022. | Getty Images
Biden added that "limitations on trafficking, marketing, and under-age sales" should remain in place as federal and state regulation of marijuana changes.
"Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana," Biden said in a statement. "It’s time that we right these wrongs."