It was reported that the online meal ordering service Uber Eats would partner with cannabis shop Tokyo Smoke to offer online cannabis orders in Ontario, Canada.
According to its website, Tokyo Smoke, which Canopy Growth owns, has roughly 50 sites in Ontario, including one in Windsor, immediately across the border from Detroit.
According to the companies, customers must certify that they are of legal smoking age in Ontario, and orders will be fulfilled within an hour of being placed. The merchandise will only be available for pick up if the customer has proper identification with them.
Uber Eats already provides booze delivery through its app. In April, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stated on CNBC that the business might branch out into the cannabis industry, pending approval from US regulatory authorities.
It was not immediately clear whether Uber’s cooperation with Tokyo Smoke in Ontario is merely a test or whether the service will be spread across the country in the future. Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post.
On Monday morning, Uber’s stock was selling at roughly $44.80 per share, increasing more than 1 percent from the previous day.
Across the world, the recreational marijuana market is flourishing, and drug sale regulations are typically being relaxed by federal, state, and local authorities.
For example, earlier this year, New York state lawmakers authorized marijuana for recreational use, marking the beginning of a protracted process that will likely take years to determine how the state’s retail marijuana industry will be structured.
Transporting the drug over state boundaries would almost certainly stay unlawful in the absence of federal legalization.
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On the other hand, insiders predict that the tri-state area will become a regional alliance, allowing huge chains to establish themselves throughout the region.
“When the road is clear for cannabis, when federal laws come into play, we’re absolutely going to take a look at it,” Khosrowshahi said.
However, unless cannabis is allowed on a federal level in the United States, a national company like Uber Eats, which relies on crowdsourced transportation, is unlikely to enter the American market.