Too lazy to find and buy some new bud? Uber Eats has now got you covered!
Uber Eats has partnered with local dispensaries and Leafly to offer cannabis delivery in Toronto through its food delivery platform.
Uber Technologies and Leafly have partnered in part to address competition from Canada’s illicit cannabis market, which persists despite the country’s legalization of cannabis in 2018. In addition to improving access for consumers and patients, the new cannabis home delivery program will also keep the city’s roads safer.
Toronto residents aged 19 and older can now order cannabis from Hidden Leaf Cannabis, Minerva Cannabis, and Shivaa’s Rose using the Uber Eats app. Dispensary employees who have been certified by CannSell, an Ontario-required training and certification program, will fill orders and deliver them.
Lola Kassim, General Manager of Uber Eats Canada, stated in a press release that the relationship with Leafly will assist businesses in providing safe, easy choices for customers in Toronto to purchase legal cannabis for home delivery.
Kassim told CBC Toronto that, first and foremost, this initiative is important for discouraging impaired driving, and secondly, it is just another way to combat the illegal cannabis market that still accounts for more than 40% of cannabis sales in Ontario today.
“So, we’re providing an option that goes beyond in-store, that goes beyond pickup and it’s also an option for consumers on a platform like Uber Eats, which many Torontonians already know and love and also is built on, you know, trust and safety,” said Kassim.
Regulations enacted to address the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 allowed regulated businesses to deliver cannabis to consumers at home. Licensed shops could use couriers to deliver products to customers under the temporary rules. In March, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) made the home delivery rules permanent with several new restrictions.
The partnership between Uber Eats and Leafly is the food delivery platform’s first to offer cannabis delivery to customers.
