The first wave of the cannabis lottery licences has passed the city by, but the folks at Liquid Chrome in dowtown Barrie say they still have hopes of getting the much-sought-after provincial stamp of approval for carrying a supply of marijuana.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) sent out information to potential cannabis retailers in early January with a lottery naming the first 25 recipients of a licence.
While some were upset that they may not have made that first round, the lottery list was dependent on those named completing all of the provincial requirements.
Liquid Chrome assistant manager Eric Batters told BarrieToday that, while he hasn’t heard anything about the Dunlop Street shop getting the cannabis go-ahead, it doesn’t mean they're never going to get a licence.
“We haven’t heard anything directly, but nothing has changed from the start of the lottery,” said Batters. “We’re still on the waitlist, as is everyone else who is waiting.
"From my understanding, the hold-up is the fact that the government is behind on their product and merely handing out licences as they are able," Batters added. "Truthfully, we may get our licence when the whole thing is just not newsworthy at all.”
April 1 seems to be a deadline for many of the already approved shops to have what they need completed for moving forward. As retailers can't do much until more cannabis product becomes available, more potential shops will be added to the licensee list.
Batters said he believes things will move along a lot faster as the months go on, which he hopes will happen.
“I have heard that things might become more open at the end of the year, but that is all speculation,” said Batters. “They issued licences dependent upon what they currently had for cannabis production, which was estimates of 200 million pounds in an industry that needed 600 million.
"Those numbers represent retail as well as medicinal, so there has been a lot of catch-up and, based on those numbers, that is how they released the numbers they did," he added. "It is still really early to tell how this goes, but I’m positive in the end it all will work out.”
The cannabis licence lottery divided Ontario into separate regions, with each one getting a set amount of licences. Barrie falls into the East Region, which also includes Ottawa, Peterborough and Haliburton.
Right now, there are five allowed in the East Region to move forward for the licenses with three in Ottawa, one in Sudbury and one in Kingston (Frontenac) having the chance to finalize their paperwork.
