Uber Eats will begin offering cannabis deliveries for three Toronto cannabis stores starting Monday, October 17.
The announcement, made on October 16, includes a partnership with Leafly. Uber Eats will offer delivery for Toronto cannabis stores Shivaa’s Rose, Hidden Leaf Cannabis and Minerva Cannabis.
All three retailers will have to provide their own certified and trained staff for deliveries, but consumers will be able to place their orders in the “cannabis” category of the Uber Eats app.
The consumer experience will be similar to ordering food through Uber Eats, with the customer being notified when the order is accepted and processed. Ontario’s cannabis rules do not allow independent third-party cannabis delivery services, so deliveries will always be made by store staff trained by CannaSell, the training and certification program for cannabis. Ontario cannabis retailers.
Uber Eats first offered users the ability to order cannabis products for pickup at Tokyo Smoke locations last November, but did not offer a delivery option at the time. The new deal with Leafly also means retailers won’t have to run their own menu. Leafly offers menu listings for many Canadian cannabis retailers.
Uber Eats says it offers these services to provide more delivery options for the Toronto area.
“We’re partnering with industry leaders like Leafly to help retailers provide safe and convenient options for Torontonians to buy legal cannabis for home delivery, which will help combat the illegal market and reduce impaired driving,” said Lola Kassim, general manager of Uber Eats Canada in a company press release.
“Over the past few years, we have invested heavily in our delivery business, and the selection has grown enormously. Uber Eats has grown rapidly to become a versatile platform that can be used by a variety of businesses, large and small. »
Getting cannabis delivered to Canada
Ontario began temporarily allowing curbside delivery and pickup of cannabis in early 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions. In early 2022, the rules were made permanent.
Alberta also began allowing cannabis stores to make deliveries in March 2022, but specifically banned third-party delivery services such as taxis, Uber Eats and Skip the Dishes.
In July 2021, British Columbia announced that retailers would be able to make their own cannabis deliveries. Then, in March of this year, the government of British Columbia also announced that it would begin making deliveries from its BC Cannabis Store online via a third-party delivery service, Pineapple Express.
In July of this year, British Columbia announced that private cannabis stores in the province could also deliver via common carriers such as Canada Post and other delivery service providers.
All Canadian provinces and territories offer various delivery options, either from stores or from a provincial online store. Manitoba and Saskatchewan also offer cannabis delivery options to retailers, as do Quebec, New Brunswick, Yukon, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
