For decades April 20 has been a day to celebrate all thing marijuana. But now that cannabis is legal across Canada, pot shops in Regina celebrated the day differently than years past.
“We have hotdogs, pizza next door and we rented the space, and one of our workers is DJing over there,” said Daniel Uhersky, the owner of Regina pot shop Wiid.
“We have a munchies bar, there’s candy for all of our customers when they come in and out they can grab some. We’re also doing contests with give-away bags,” said Evan Anderson, the project manager at Tweed, another pot shop.
Wiid and Tweed have had success since opening their doors in November and December respectively. Tweed opened a second location last week.
“We opened the first one, giving us more time to find our bearings and work out the kinks, and then we were able to open this one with a lot more ease,” said Anderson.
Keeping cannabis products on the shelves has been an issue for many shops across the country, but these Regina shops have been able to work through that struggle.
“Supply was definitely a challenge I’d say earlier in the year, around January February it was very tight, but I’d say in March a lot of smaller licensed producers started to kick in,” said Anderson.
Now, supply in the budding pot industry is not a concern according to Uhersky.
“There have been a lot of growers now approaching us, wanting us to carry their product in our store. We've been actually turning down a lot of product lately,” said Uhersky.
Although cannabis is now legal in some forms, Uhersky said there is still room for growth in the cannabis industry, including making edible cannabis products legal and better access to medical marijuana. But on 4-20 he is just excited to celebrate a big milestone for the cannabis community in Canada.
“Today is hopefully more about celebrating that we're finally here, and we're slowly going to work our way through it,” said Uhersky.
Based on a report by Stefanie Davis
