Dankr.ca – Your Toronto Connection
Article by The Leaf News
Dear Herb: Is it okay to order a QP online? And if so: I have to pick it up at a post office by vehicle. Would I be breaking the law having it in my person bringing it home? — Quarter Pounder
Dear QP: A QP is a quarter pound, or roughly 113 grams of cannabis. Since the federal Cannabis Act prohibits public possession of more than 30 grams of non-medical cannabis, no legally authorized cannabis store will ever sell more than 30 grams of cannabis at once. Therefore, I can infer from your question that the website you’re ordering from is almost certainly an illegal online cannabis dispensary. Any cannabis sold from such a store would be illicit cannabis, which is illegal to possess.
Like I mentioned before, you can’t legally possess more than 30 grams of cannabis in public without a medical cannabis registration. Taking your illicit cannabis home from the post office would violate that law as well.
Dear Herb: I’ve been wondering about this for some time now. What is the government’s definition of a ‘plant’ when it comes to cannabis? To me, it would have to be actively growing in a medium (hydroponic medium or soil). If that is the legal definition, what would the laws around selling/gifting ‘cuttings’ be?
I could grow a massive “mother” plant, take 10+ cuttings off her, prep them and sell them as is. The buyer would then need to propagate the cuttings in order for it to become an actively growing plant.
Seems like there are still a few loopholes/grey areas that need to be addressed. — Looking for a Loophole
Dear Looking: The legal definition of a cannabis plant is neither a loophole or a grey area, I’m afraid. It’s defined quite explicitly in the federal Cannabis Act, which says a “cannabis plant means a plant that belongs to the genus Cannabis.” No mention is made of whether or not the plant is actively growing.
In my opinion, that definition clearly applies to the cannabis plant cuttings you describe. Under a strict interpretation of that legal definition, each cannabis plant cutting would equal one cannabis plant. It’s very much illegal to sell cannabis without a licence to do so, which means selling those cuttings as an unlicensed individual would constitute a crime. It would also be a crime for an individual to possess more than four cannabis plants at once, without a medical cultivation licence.
I get the argument that you’re making — that the cuttings wouldn’t actually count as a plant until they’ve been propagated — but I question whether that argument would fly in court, so I think you’d be taking a big legal risk by trying to sell cannabis cuttings like this.
Dear Herb: I live Ontario. How much weed can legally I have in my house? — Upper Limit in Upper Canada
Dear Upper Limit: Theoretically you can store an infinite amount of cannabis at home in Ontario without breaking the law, as long as it’s not illicit cannabis. Ontario has not placed a limit on cannabis possession at home (see this previous edition of Dear Herb for information about cannabis possession limits elsewhere.) The limit for cannabis possession in public remains 30 grams, as in every other province.
