Higher Standards: Reasons to Buy Legal

Psst: you don’t have to buy cannabis from someone you used to hang out with. You no longer have to know a guy who knows a guy. There’s a new deal.

If you don’t think buying legal cannabis is the better way, think again. It’s important to know what is — and what isn’t — in the cannabis products you buy. Here’s what you can bank on when you buy legal.

You get to choose from a huge selection of products 

Variety is the spice of life. Ontario’s legal cannabis marketplace now offers over 1,900 diverse products across a range of categories — from dried flower to pre-rolls, vapes to accessories, extracts to edibles, and CBD to topicals.  

The best part: the assortment and quality of products just keeps getting better and better. Licensed Producers are constantly innovating, experimenting with new strains, refining existing products, tweaking production methods and introducing new formats. There are delicious infused baked goods. High-potency CBD in whichever format you prefer. Extracts you can dab, vape and ingest. And so much more. 

When you shop at one of Ontario’s many Authorized Cannabis Stores, you’ll be able to choose from a curated selection of these products that a trained budtender can help you navigate. Can’t find what you’re looking for in-store? Nearly all products in the catalogue are available on OCS.ca. 

Your safety comes first 

The word “regulation” often gets a bad rap. But when it comes to cannabis, regulation is a good thing. It’s what guarantees that your cannabis products are produced, manufactured and packaged in a consistent and transparent way to keep you safe. 

What does that look like in practice? For starters, all Producers must adhere to strict requirements enforced by Health Canada. These requirements include refraining from use of unapproved pesticides and additives, maintaining sanitary and controlled production and storage environments, and creating detailed and accurate product labels. To ensure Producers are complying, Health Canada may visit Producer facilities and collect cannabis samples. 

A sample from each batch of every finished legal cannabis product is rigorously tested by federally licensed third-party laboratories for harmful and/or unapproved substances, such as certain pesticides, E. coli, salmonella, staphylococcus, yeast, arsenic, lead and mercury.  

Products are also tested for THC and CBD levels. Certain types of product formats have unique specifications they must meet; for instance, edibles must have a consistent amount of THC and/or CBD in each dose and vape cartridges must not include additives such as vitamins, caffeine or sugar. 

Before they can be accepted for sale, products require a COA (Certificate of Analysis) and a SOA (Statement of Attestation), outlining the product’s lot number with the acceptable test results. If a product or production practice is found to be unsafe, a product may be recalled and/or a Producer may be fined — all in the name of consumer safety. 

You can always feel confident in what you’re getting 

Ensuring safe, high-quality cannabis products doesn’t end with testing. The OCS quality assurance department double-checks each product to ensure that what you see on the label is what you get in the product inside. 

For every single product listed, the OCS QA team checks against a minimum of seven touchpoints. They do this to confirm that the product doesn’t make any false or unproven claims, the COA is present and legitimate, risk of accidental consumption by children is minimized, and damaged products are removed from the supply chain. 

The team also makes sure that the packaging date adheres to OCS standards and performs vendor audits to ensure that Producers not only adhere to Health Canada requirements but are able to deliver quality products consistently. 

What does the future of cannabis have in store?

Find out for yourself — use our store locator to find an Authorized Cannabis Store near you, or start exploring OCS.ca.