While it is illegal to mail marijuana unless you are a designated-production licence holder or a marijuana delivery service; it happens daily across Canada.
“People order it all the time. Some of the companies are more straight up than others,” said one man in line at a Dawson Creek postal outlet this morning, dubbed Klondike Greenbud for a fear of giving his real name.
“I’m picking some up right now. It’s April 20, man. I can get weed anywhere around here, but edibles and specialty products, it’s best to go online to a reputable brand and company.”
At the DC Compass Cannabis, owner Matt Rivard says this is the kind of antic that the move towards legal and prescribed weed is trying to stamp out. While there are likely people mailing to and from the area every day; that doesn’t make it legal.
“It is important to work within the law,” he says.
A licensed producer may sell, provide, ship, deliver, transport marijuana to other licensed producers; a licensed dealer; or a person to whom an exemption relating to the substance has been granted (client).
Canada Post protocol – the smell
If it smells, it will get yanked.
Canada Post officials note they do not open or investigate packages at random. “Canada Post does however, have a standard procedure to follow should a package be suspect of containing an illicit or dangerous substance. For this to happen the package may have been broken open in process or has a distinct odour to it.”
If a suspicious package is found to contain a potentially illegal substance, it will be given to law enforcement for investigation.
Canada Post will not know whether the sender/receiver is licensed with Health Canada and therefore in a legal position to send/receive marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Packaging
Under provisions senders must securely pack the marijuana in a package that prevents the contents from being identified without the package being opened, and
is sealed so that the package cannot be opened without a seal being broken.
“Canada Post is not to be aware of the content of the package and there is to be no indication or markings on the outside of the package as to its contents.”
The Google machine and Internet provide nothing but illegal websites selling the devil’s herb. They will ship it right through Canada Post.
Some websites selling marijuana through the mail operate in plain sight on the Internet.
“There are all kinds of loopholes. Fifteen years ago people would send it on Greyhound,” said Greenbud.
“People are getting bolder, and the substance is becoming more and more part of the everyday.”
