All cannabis stores are closing in Ontario after being removed from essential businesses list

Ontario’s cannabis stores will be closing  today after Premier Doug Ford revised the list of essential businesses.

When Ontario first ordered to close non-essential businesses on March 24^th, cannabis stores were considered essential and were open.

However, the government announced new closures on Friday in attempt to flatten the curve.

In my opinion mr. Ford, I think closing cannabis stores could bring issues of illegal trade, adding more weight to the crisis with street cannabis contaminated with fentanyl, the less thing we need is, a spike in overdose.

— Mila Perez (@071165) April 4, 2020

A spokesperson for Bonnefire says it's going to hurt. Bonnefire just opened their first Toronto cannabis store last week.

“The order of closures threw us a wrench in our plan to provide a new type of experience for people interested in cannabis… we want to elevate the cannabis experience and part of that comes from actually being in a store and being able to experience the product in a way that we intended it to be experienced," says the spokesperson.

"To have the cannabis sector deemed to be non-essential is very difficult, as a new business," the Bonnefire spokesperson admits.

If alcohol is essential, so is cannabis. There are so few cannabis shops that closing them makes minimal difference. Please reconsider, cannabis helps people, and is both recreational and medicinal, just like alcohol. Keep cannabis legally available. @fordnation

— Caroline Horton (@cardhorton) April 4, 2020

For cannabis buyers looking to purchase their supply legally they're now need to resort to OCS, the website belonging to the government operated Ontario Cannabis Store.

LCBO and Beer Store locations remain open although on reduced hours and are still considered essential businesses.