Health Canada has announced major revisions in the national regulations governing cannabis, including new rules governing production, licensing, packaging and labels, security and recordkeeping, according to an analysis done by StratCann.
According to StratCann, the new regulations, which were published in Canada Gazette on Wednesday, aim at addressing concerns of industry while maintaining a strict emphasis on public safety.
According to federal estimates, the rule changes will also save Canadian marijuana businesses C$42.1 in annualized values, which is C$295.1 over 10 years.
Among the highlights of regulatory changes are:
- Micro licenses will have their canopy increased to 800 square metres from 200 and nurseries from 50 to 200.
- Producers can now produce up to twice as much cannabis dried, from 600kgs.
- Pre-rolled joints no longer have a gram-limit.
- Co-packing “multiple discrete 10 milligrams THC cannabis edibles in one package” is allowed.
- The use of QR codes for information on the labels of cannabis products.
These new regulations will save cannabis businesses a lot of time as well, by removing the requirement to maintain records of previous operations. This includes processing and disposing of cannabis waste. StratCann notes that, for example, licensees are no longer required to notify the government of “the address of the location where the cannabis was destroyed and the description the destruction method”.
On March 12, the new rules went into effect.