When buying weed from a dispensary, the first and most crucial thing you must check is its legitimacy. There are various things that can help you differentiate between legit and illegal cannabis dispensaries. Do the weed delivery & dispensaries in Canada have a storefront? Do they have a brand name for their products? Do they check IDs at the door? If they have these things, they might be legit. However, for a person who is not that keen, it can be difficult to notice such things. Check the following to determine if a dispensary is legal.
- Operation Hours
When confirming if a dispensary is legit, their hours of operation can help you to know more. When it comes to cannabis business in most areas, a legal store is not allowed to operate after 10.00 pm and before 6.00 am. Therefore, if you see a dispensary operating during these illegal hours, be careful about it. Mostly, illegal stores operate between this time to avoid problems with law enforcers.
- Taxes
Every business is required to pay taxes, and a cannabis business that is operating legally does so. The tax revenue from cannabis businesses is used to support social programs like public safety, economic development, prevention of drug abuse, and environmental protection. This tax fee will always be displayed on the receipt depending on the number of items you buy. Illegal cannabis businesses will not charge you the taxes for the products you purchase from them. Therefore, they don’t meet the state’s need to use these funds for developing these important programs.
- Identification Checks
This is another factor that can tell you a lot about the legality of a cannabis dispensary. For instance, dispensaries selling recreational cannabis must ensure their customers are 21+ years. This is the legal age for cannabis users. Furthermore, the customer cannot buy more than an ounce a day. If you purchase cannabis from a dispensary that does not ask for an ID or use a system to check you, you might have just supported an illegal business. A legal cannabis dispensary will ask for your details, check your ID to confirm you are over 21 years and make sure you cannot buy more than is allowed by the law per day.
- Cannabis Consumption in the Dispensary
Even if dispensaries are allowed to sell cannabis, the law prohibits the consumption of cannabis in the dispensary. Any person consuming cannabis must ensure they are in the right place. Therefore, if the dispensary allows you to smoke or consume cannabis on their premises, they might have nothing to lose. Always check if the dispensary has restrictions on consuming cannabis and prohibits consumption on the premises since this is against the law.
Conclusion
These are four things that differentiate legal cannabis dispensaries from illegal ones. As the consumer, you have the responsibility to ensure you are not supporting illegal businesses by knowing how legal businesses look like. So, a legal business operates within legal hours, pays taxes, screens its customers, and does not allow the consumption of cannabis products on its premises.
