Canada: regulations for edibles, topicals and concentrates are ready

Health Canada has just published its final regulations for the second wave of legalization, the edibles, topicals and concentrates. They will go on sale on October 17 as planned. However, the federal agency has also announced that the products will not be available for sale until mid-December.

Regulations

Final regulations differ little from preliminary regulations published by Health Canada last December. These include THC limits per package, restrictions on additives (no nicotine or alcohol, for example) and packaging restrictions. It also stipulates that the label must contain a standardized cannabis leaf, a health warning message, the THC and CBD content of products, a list of ingredients and allergens, and instructions on how to use the product.

Additional regulations specify that products must not be attractive to young people, nor be associated with the consumption of alcohol or tobacco. Nor may they claim to have medicinal virtues; ; visit edibles cannot claim to have dietary virtues, and the topical cosmetic virtues. With almost identical packaging for all products, and the impossibility of promoting their merits, the marketing of these products is already proving complex.

A delay

Just like the legalization of cannabis flowers and oils scheduled for July 1, 2018 but pushed back to October 17, the second wave of legalization will be pushed back two months. The regulations will indeed come into force on October 17, but the first products will not be marketed until December, around the 16th. This delay is intended to allow licensees to express their intention to produce and sell topicals, edibles or concentrated.

This delay means that the products will not be available before the federal elections scheduled for October 21. It will therefore be up to the next government to manage the administration of this second wave of legalization. Generally speaking, cannabis will be an important electoral issue, and some will be quick to criticize the Trudeau government's management of legalization.