By Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

Lethbridge granted first recreational cannabis store license

Oct 19, 2018 | 2:59 PM

LETHBRIDGE – Two days after recreational cannabis was legalized in Canada, the AGLC (Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission) has granted Lethbridge’s first recreational store license.

The license goes to New Leaf Cannabis, which also has several licenses approved in the Calgary area as well. It’s not clear from the company’s social media pages when the store on Mayor Magrath Drive will open to the public.

The company says there’s a big difference between getting the license and opening the store. A social media message from indicates that they are still going through their final approvals and product ordering but will be making an announcement in the near future about an official opening.

AGLC communications manger Heather Holmen says there hasn’t been any reason for delays in opening stores in Lethbridge, other than the process for approvals is very thorough and takes several months.

“AGLC opened up its application process for retail locations on March 6, earlier this year, and all applications are processed on a first come first served basis. So, while there has been speculation that perhaps certain larger city centres were being accommodated beyond others, it’s certainly not the case.”

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The numbers on the AGLC website ( www.aglc.ca) are being updated hourly as new licenses are granted.

Oct. 17, there were 17 licensees in business, and the number of approvals as of Friday afternoon was 27. Holmen says there could be between 80 and 100 licenses granted by the end of October.

“Certainly, province-wide we’ve received almost 800 individual applications and considering each application is more than 50 pages, in addition to all the information that’s required for it…our background checks alone can take two to four months.”

For those cities and municipalities where stores are not yet open, the AGLC runs a website where those over the age of 18 can purchase recreational cannabis in several forms, including rolled joints, buds, flowers and oil. However, more than half a dozen products have already sold out.

While Holmen says they only kept statistics on visits, from 12:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Oct. 17, the site received more than 84,000 visits that day.

More than 8,000 orders were also placed on the website the same day. The first several hundred packages ordered have since arrived at their destinations.  

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