The legislation on cannabis

The Cannabis Regulation Act

Notice concerning the Act
The Act to tighten the regulation of cannabis passed on November 1^st, 2019. That Act amends the Cannabis Regulation Act. The proposed amendments and additions concern mainly:

The use of cannabis in public places
It is now forbidden to smoke or vape cannabis in any public place, whether indoor or outdoor.

Raising the legal age
The minimum legal age to possess or purchase cannabis and to be admitted to the premises of the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) is now raised to 21 years of age.

The Cannabis Regulation Act and its regulations establish the legal measures that will help to accomplish the goals of public health and safety. The main measures concern the following:

• possession
• cultivation for personal use
• restricted use
• workplaces
• commercial production of cannabis
• transportation and storage of cannabis
• sale of cannabis
• the characteristics of the products
• cannabis accessories
• promotion, advertising and packaging

Possession

• It is prohibited for a person under 21 years of age to possess or give cannabis.
• The government may, by regulation, determine standards applicable to the possession of cannabis in a public place by a person 21 years of age or over, particularly to reduce the amount of cannabis that a person may possess in such a place. Since the government of Québec has not made a regulation to that effect, it is possible to possess 30 grams of dried cannabis or its equivalent in a public place, as prescribed by the federal Act.
• The amount of dried cannabis or its equivalent that one may possess in a place other than a public place is set at 150 grams. In a private residence, the possession limit of 150 grams of dried cannabis or its equivalent applies, regardless of the number of persons 21 years of age or over who live there. Moreover, a person 21 years of age or over may not possess a total of more than 150 grams of dried cannabis or its equivalent in one or more places other than a public place, notably in all of his or her residences.
• It is prohibited for any person to possess cannabis in certain places, particularly certain places accessible mainly to minors. Rules are set for the safe storage of cannabis. Therefore,
  • it is prohibited to possess cannabis:
    • on the grounds, premises or in buildings providing preschool education services, elementary and secondary school instructional services, educational services in vocational training or educational services to adults in general education, of a college-level educational institution;
    • on the premises or in the buildings of a university-level educational institution, except student residences;
    • on the grounds and in the facilities of a childcare centre or day care centre, as well as on the grounds, on premises or in buildings used for detention.
  • It will be required to store cannabis in a safe manner, in a place not easily accessible to minors;
  • In the case of an intermediate resource or of a family-type resource located in a private residence, as well as childcare services, whether the child care providers are recognized or not, cannabis must be kept under lock.

Cultivation for personal use

It is totally prohibited to cultivate cannabis for personal use. Note that it is also prohibited to possess a cannabis plant.

Restricted use

• It should be noted that the restrictions on the use of cannabis provided for in the Cannabis Regulation Act also apply to medical cannabis.
• Prohibition against smoking or vaping cannabis in all indoor or outdoor spaces that are open to the public, including public roads.

Specifications regarding restrictions on use

• It is prohibited to smoke cannabis on grounds where certain types of enclosed spaces where smoking is currently prohibited are located, except for the grounds of residential buildings comprising two or more dwellings or private seniors’ residences.
• A closed smoking room may be set up in certain enclosed places considered as living environments (estabishments, seniors’ residences, etc.). The smoking rooms may be used only by the residents and construction rules will apply. However, if there is a smoking room already set up to smoke tobacco, that room must also be used for cannabis use.
• When operating a research centre, a cannabis producer, a health establishment, a college-level or university-level institution or a legal person mandated by the State that is participating in research activities on health may set up a room in the centre where it is permitted to smoke or to vape for research purposes, under certain conditions.
• It is possible to identify rooms where it is permitted to smoke or to vape cannabis in enclosed places considered as living environments (establishments, palliative care hospices, etc.). Only the persons admitted or lodged in such places may smoke in these rooms. The number of rooms identified cannot exceed 20% of the rooms available for the whole of the clientele. The proportion must also take into account the rooms where it is permitted to smoke or to vape tobacco. Moreover, if there are rooms already identified for the use of tobacco, they must be identified first for the use of cannabis.
• It should be noted that a person who must, while working or providing services, take care of, or otherwise provide care to, a minor, a senior or any person in a vulnerable situation, may not use cannabis of any kind, during the hours the person works or provides services.
• A local municipality may, by regulation and under certain conditions, permit the smoking of cannabis in a municipal park, except in those areas of the park where it is already prohibited to smoke or vape tobacco.

Regarding workplaces

• The Act specifies that an employer may, pursuant to his or her managerial prerogative, regulate the use of cannabis, or even prohibit it entirely.
• Clarifications were made to the Act respecting occupational health and safety to specify the responsibilities of employers and workers with respect to performing work when the worker’s condition represents a risk to his health, safety or physical well-being, or that of other persons at or near the workplace, by reason, in particular, of his or her being impaired by alcohol, drugs, including cannabis, or any similar substance. The employer must see to it that a worker does not perform this work if such is his or her condition. Moreover, the Act stipulates that on a construction site, the condition of the worker impaired by alcohol, drugs, including cannabis, or a similar substance represents a risk.

Commercial production of cannabis

The authorized Québec producers may only sell their cannabis in Québec to the SQDC or to another producer, unless they ship it outside Québec. The government could, by regulation, determine the conditions that apply to the sale of cannabis between producers and the standards to be complied with.

Note: cannabis processing is considered production.

Transportation and storage of cannabis

• Only the Société québécoise du cannabis, a person it authorizes, a cannabis producer or any other person determined by government regulation may transport, including delivery, and store cannabis for commercial purposes.
• The Government may, by regulation, prescribe the standards and conditions applicable to the transportation and storage of cannabis.
• The Act does not forbid the transportation of cannabis in transit in Québec. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the transportation of cannabis without a bill of lading indicating the names and addresses of the shipper and the receiver constitutes proof that it is intended for delivery in Québec.

Sale of cannabis

• Only the SQDC can sell cannabis retail in Québec.
• General rules in matters of the sale of cannabis in Québec (non-exhaustive list):
  • a person under 21 years of age may not be admitted into a cannabis retail outlet;
  • it is prohibited for a person under 21 years of age to purchase cannabis and prohibited to sell cannabis to a person under 21 years of age or to a person who purchases it for a person under 21 years of age;
  • cannabis must be displayed in such a way that customers may not have access to it without the assistance of an employee and that it is visible only from the inside of the cannabis retail outlet;
  • cannabis sold at the SQDC can not be altered there in any way and can not be treated to change its properties;
  • cannabis sales employees must have successfully completed the training determined by regulation of the Minister of Health and Social Services;
  • it is not permitted to sell more than the equivalent of 30 grams of dried cannabis to a purchaser in the course of a same visit;
  • the public health information prescribed by regulation of the Minister of Health and Social Services must be communicated to the purchaser at the time of any purchase;
  • cannabis may not be sold to a person whose behaviour is clearly altered by drugs or alcohol, nor to a person purchasing cannabis for another person whose behaviour is clearly altered in such a manner.
• Only the following types of cannabis may be sold:
  • dried cannabis;
  • cannabis oil;
  • fresh cannabis;
  • cannabis resin (hashish);
  • edible cannabis products;
  • cannabis extracts.
• No other product, even those approved by the federal government, may be sold in Québec without the Québec government making a regulation authorizing its sale. That is the case, for instance, of cannabis products for topical use.
• A cannabis retail outlet of the SQDC may not be operated near schools (preschool, elementary and secondary, as well as general adult education centres, vocational training centres and colleges). It is considered to be near an educational institution if, from the boundaries of the grounds on which the institution is situated, the shortest route to the retail outlet by a public road is less than 250 metres or, in the territory of Ville de Montréal, less than 150 metres.

Regarding the characteristics of the products

• Dried cannabis and cannabis resin offered in Québec may not contain any additive or other substance intended to modify its odour, taste or colour.  A cannabis extract, such as oil, may not contain any characteristic flavour or odour other than that of cannabis. It may not contain any colouring agent intended to modify its colour.
• Components, other than tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), intended to strengthen the intoxicating psychological effects of cannabis may not be added.
• The THC concentration present in cannabis must not exceed 30% weight per weight.
• An edible cannabis product in solid form may not contain a quantity of THC greater than 10 mg per package and a maximum of 5 mg of THC is fixed per distinguishable portion unit.
• An edible cannabis product in liquid form may not contain a quantity of THC greater than 5 mg per container.
• An edible cannabis product offered in Québec may not be sweets, confectionery, dessert, chocolate or any other product attractive to persons under 21 years of age.
• The government may, by regulation, determine other standards relating to the composition and characteristics or other properties of cannabis.

Cannabis accessories

• The retail outlets of the SQDC can sell accessories, specialized publications on cannabis or any other product determined by government regulation.
• Businesses selling cannabis accessories must comply with the rules applicable to tobacco accessories provided in the Tobacco Control Act on retail sale, including those on display and signage. All the provisions regarding the promotion, advertising and packaging of cannabis in the Cannabis Regulation Act apply to accessories.

Promotion, advertising and packaging

• General rules of promotion:
  • It is prohibited for SQDC, a cannabis producer, a distributor and manufacturer of accessories and an operator of a retail business where accessories are sold:
    • to give or supply cannabis for promotional purposes, particularly in the context of a tasting;
    • to offer consumers a gift or rebate or a right to participate in a lottery, contest or game or any other form of benefit, if consumers must, in return, provide information on cannabis or their consumption or purchase or present proof of purchase of a cannabis product;
    • to give consumers a rebate on the market price or to reduce the retail price based on the quantity purchased,
  • It is prohibited for anyone to associate a name, logo, distinguishing guise, design, image or slogan that is associated with cannabis, a brand of cannabis, the SQDC or a cannabis producer with a sport, cultural or research facility maintained by a health or social services institution. The same prohibition applies to association with a sport, cultural or social event.
  • It is prohibited for a cannabis producer and a distributor and manufacturer of accessories to offer the SQDC, including its employees, rebates, gratuities or another form of benefit related to the sale or the retail price of cannabis.
  • It is prohibited for the operator of a business, a cannabis producer or a distributor and manufacturer of accessories to sell or give an object that is not cannabis or supply such an object as part of an exchange if a name, logo, distinguishing guise, design, image or slogan that is associated with cannabis, a brand of cannabis, the SQDC or a cannabis producer. For example, it is prohibited to sell a t-shirt or an ashtray on which a cannabis leaf appears.
  • Any direct or indirect sponsorship that is associated in any manner whatsoever with the promotion of cannabis, a brand of cannabis, the SQDC or a cannabis producer is prohibited.
• General advertising rules:
  • No direct or indirect advertising to promote cannabis, a brand of cannabis, a cannabis producer or the SQDC, particularly if it is directed at minors, is false or misleading or is likely to create a false impression about the characteristics of cannabis or its effects on health, directly or indirectly associates the use of cannabis or of an accessory to a particular life style, etc.
  • Advertising can not be disseminated otherwise than:
    • in printed newspapers and magazines that are sent and addressed to a person 21 years of age or over identified by name;
    • by signage that may be seen only from the inside of a cannabis retail outlet.
  • Advertising disseminated by signage may be visible only from the inside of an SQDC outlet (or, in the case of accessories, of a business that sells accessories).
  • Factual information about cannabis, including about the price or the intrinsic characteristics of cannabis, on brands of cannabis and on the SQDC can be communicated to consumers to the extent that it does not constitute prohibited advertising or a prohibited form of advertising. In addition, the SQDC may give consumers factual information on its website about the sale of cannabis to the extent that it take the necessary measures to ensure that it is not accessible by persons under 21 years of age.
• General rules regarding packaging:
  • The packaging can not be used for promotional or advertising purposes: only the brands and elements of an informative nature can be shown.
• The government may, by regulation, determine standards relating to promotion and advertising, and relating to cannabis containers, packaging and display.

Other provisions

• Establishment of the Cannabis Prevention and Research Fund at the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux.
  • The revenues of the Fund will be used to finance:
    • monitoring and research activities and programs relating to the effects of cannabis on the health status of the population;
    • curative care in relation to cannabis use;
    • cannabis harm prevention activities and programs and health promotion activities and programs.
  • Certain provisions of the Cannabis Regulation Act specify and guarantee that for the first five years following the coming into force of the Act, the Cannabis Prevention and Research Fund will have revenues of $25 M.
• The government may authorize the implementation of a pilot project on any matter within the scope of this Act or its regulations, except regarding the retail sale of cannabis, including online sales.
• Establishment of an oversight committee on cannabis responsible for advising and making recommendations deemed necessary regarding cannabis and the application of the Act to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Committee members must have no links with the cannabis industry and be free of any conflict of interest;
• The Minister of Health and Social Services must report to the government on the implementation of the Act, no later than three years after the coming into force of its provisions, and every five years after that;
• Powers of inspection, seizure and investigation to verify compliance with the Act may be attributed to various intervenors, including inspectors from the Ministère and members of a police force.

For more details on certain aspects of the Cannabis Control Act, see the Bulletin d’information page (in French only).