Toronto consumers can now order cannabis online through Uber Eats. This partnership includes local dispensaries as well as Leafly, an online source for marijuana. 

“We are partnering with industry leaders like Leafly to help retailers offer safe, convenient options for people in Toronto to purchase legal cannabis for delivery to their homes, which will help combat the illegal market and help reduce impaired driving,” Lola Kassim, general manager of Uber Eats Canada, said in a statement from the two companies on Sunday. “Over the last few years, we have invested heavily in our delivery business and selection has expanded tremendously. Uber Eats has grown quickly to become a versatile platform usable by diverse businesses large and small.”

Under the new program, Toronto residents aged 19 and older can use the Uber Eats app to order cannabis from one of three licensed retailers: Hidden Leaf Cannabis, Minerva Cannabis and Shivaa’s Rose. These orders will be fulfilled by the business and shipped by certified dispensary workers who have completed CannSell training.

The partnership between Uber Technologies and Leafly is designed in part to help address competition from Canada’s illicit cannabis market, which persists despite the country’s legalization of cannabis in 2018. The new cannabis home delivery program will also improve access for consumers and patients while keeping the city’s roadways safer.

“First and foremost, we see this as a critical piece to helping discourage impaired driving, and secondly, this is just another initiative that can help combat the illegal cannabis market, which still makes up more than 40% of cannabis sales in Ontario today,” Kassim told CBC Toronto. “So, we’re providing an option that goes beyond in-store, that goes beyond pickup and it’s also an option for consumers on a platform like Uber Eats, which many Torontonians already know and love and also is built on, you know, trust and safety.”

Data from the Ontario Cannabis Store, the province’s only wholesaler of legal recreational marijuana, shows that nearly 57% of the cannabis bought between the beginning of the year and the end of March was purchased through the regulated supply chain. This figure was based on data provided to Statistics Canada by users. However, this may not be accurate due to many people refusing to disclose their cannabis use to authorities.

Pandemic: Home delivery launched

In 2020, regulations in Ontario allowed home delivery by registered businesses. Temporary rules allowed licensed shops to use couriers for delivery to their customers. The province’s cannabis regulatory agency, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), made the home delivery rules permanent with several new restrictions in March.

A cannabis delivery service cannot be operated solely through the sale of delivery. An order must be placed and fulfilled by one store, not multiple shops. Third-party deliveries are prohibited. Orders must also be placed with a specific store and filled by that shop only. Uber Eats orders for food must be made separately from orders for cannabis delivery, as dispensary workers deliver the orders.

To place orders, customers can open the Uber Eats app and select the “cannabis” category or search for one of the three retailers. The customer must be within the shop’s delivery radius to place an order for delivery. After an order has been received by the retailer, the customer receives an estimate of delivery times. Dispensary personnel must check that the customer is at least 18 years old before they can deliver it.

Marissa Taylor is co-owner and operator of Hidden Leaf. She said she was interested in partnering with Uber Eats or Leafly as she believes that it will allow her to expand her customer base in North York.

“We’re a small business and really it was just to help be able to get cannabis to a broader number of people,” she said. “Accessibility is not always easy for everyone… and then to expand our reach, e-commerce is definitely the way to go.”

The Uber Eats partnership with Leafly is the food delivery platform’s first to offer home delivery of cannabis products to customers. Uber Eats has launched an app that lets consumers order cannabis from Tokyo Smoke retail stores in Ontario. The platform doesn’t offer delivery and customers must visit dispensaries to pickup their orders.