Residents of Quinte weigh in on marijuana shops coming to the area

By Olivia Waldriff

BELLEVILLE – New marijuana products, including edibles, officially went on sale in Ontario Monday – but not in Belleville or Quinte West, which as yet have no pot stores.

In December, the Ontario government announced it would remove the temporary cap on private stores and the pre-qualification requirements for future retailers. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario starting accepting these new applications on Monday.

QNet News asked residents this week what they thought about the possibility of retail pot stores coming to the Quinte area, and got a mixed response.

The 59 new products released by the Ontario Cannabis Store on Monday included edibles, lotions, beverages, cookies, chocolate, and vapes.

Some of the residents who responded to a Facebook post by QNet said they’re in favour of pot shops where such products would be sold.

“More jobs means money so I’m okay with it,” Draven Flood, a culinary management student at Loyalist College, commented.

“I’m not a user but think it’s a great idea. Bring on the stores,” said Bill McGrogan, a resident of Belleville.

However, not everyone was excited about the idea.

“It’s a bad business model that puts the city in the awful position of having to crack down on residents who don’t buy their pot from government-approved stores,” said Paul Bell, a Belleville resident and former candidate for city council.

“Belleville police can’t be expected to bust every ‘dime-bag dealer’ but that’s what they’ll have to do to protect a legal cannabis store’s territorial rights should one open here. With more than 50 pot stores on the (Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory) I don’t see anybody lining up to sell overpriced weed here anytime soon,” Bell said.

According to recent reports, Tyendinaga has more than 60 dispensaries.

The new round of applications will have a huge effect on the number of retails. It means individual companies or retail operators could own up to 30 cannabis stores in 2020 increasing to 75 stores in Sept. 2021.

Quinte West and Belleville don’t have retail cannabis stores where these are available for purchase but in January 2019 Quinte West council voted 11-2 in favour of hosting the stores and Hexo, a cannabis production company, plans to create a marijuana research and processing plant in Belleville.

The new products will be available online on Jan. 16.