Cannabis Store Locations

City councilors are getting ready to weigh in on where the first legal cannabis dispensaries will set up shop in Hamilton.

Recommendations have been made on where the Ontario Cannabis Store should and should not open their doors.

The city is planning an economic development department submitted a report to be examined at the general issues committee meeting at city hall next week.

Some suggestions are that the shops should be centrally located, in larger shopping malls, preferably with banks for parking and security and they recommend that they should be on a transit route. However the report says the shops should exclude the LRT route along King Street or any other pedestrian prominent streets.

The shops must be 300 meters away from schools, nurseries and parks. The province has some guidelines as well, saying pot shops must be set up in an existing, stand alone one storey building with a store front and 25 hundred square feet of space.

Right now in Hamilton, according to the city, there are 47 illegal pot dispensaries currently operating, 33 locations have been closed, and 21 are under investigation. The city report suggests a meeting was held with dispensaries trying to find a common ground to allow them to stay in business, but the city says it’s out of their hands and it’s up to the province. While it’s still undecided where the shops will be positioned.

The province plans to open 40 stores by this summer, eventually opening 150 by 2020. The federal government says marijuana will become legal on October 17th of this year.