If you're looking to buy cannabis online, you should do your research, a customer protection group warns.
Karla Laird, the manager of community and public relations for the Better Business Bureau serving mainland British Columbia, said it has received reports that a company claiming to operate out of New Westminster has taken payment for cannabis but either has not shipped the product or sent something different than what was ordered. Meanwhile, another Canadian was allegedly scammed by a company which claims to be based in Fort Worth, Tex.
Laird advises customers to carefully research websites to ensure they're legit before proceeding.
"One of the challenges when it comes to the cannabis industry is customers not having extensive knowledge about the industry," she said. "Also, because of the times that we're living in, consumers are now having to either be more open-minded or actively engaged in online activity, so in this case, making purchases online. They haven't really grasped the importance of doing your due diligence, doing your research, before you go on a website, see something you like and make a purchase.
"Anyone can fabricate a website. Anyone can impersonate a legitimate website."
Laird said when this happens, customers lose their money and give away personal financial information to an untrustworthy source. In cases where a customer receives a product they are consuming or smoking, there are safety concerns involved.
"You want to know that whatever it is you're buying and whoever it is you're buying from, they can be held accountable for what you receive," she said.
Laird said that those purchasing cannabis online should follow the same basic set of rules for any orders made over the internet: look for proper spelling and grammar; test for broken links, especially those purportedly linking to a social media page; and on the checkout page, ensure that the currency is Canadian dollars as opposed to foreign or cryptocurrency, that taxes are included, and that if there's a discount compared to the normal purchase price, it's an amount that's not too good to be true.
"How much of a discount is it in comparison to other websites that you know of?" she said.
As well, she said, if there's an address listed on the website, especially when it is supposedly a storefront, double-check that it's located in a commercial area, as scammers commonly list residential addresses on their sites.
"Many scammers have been stealing addresses from residential areas, from vacant houses, from vacant lots, and put it on their website to give them some legitimacy," she said. "You see an address and think, 'Oh, it's in the area, or it's in the province or it's in the country, so I can trust this website,' but that's not something you should use as a telltale sign of trust."
Laird recommends using a credit card for all online purchases, as consumers have more recourse and protections, and she said a debit card can grant scammers "direct access to the account itself," she said.
Tristan Mussett, co-owner of Squamish's only — to date — provincially approved store Sky High Cannabis, said while such scams, as well as the ongoing black market, pose challenges, there are several benefits to shopping in a brick-and-mortar location that the business leans on.
As well, Mussett has noticed that since legalization in 2018, the shop's clientele has changed as customers such as seniors and those seeking alternatives to pharmaceuticals learn more about cannabis products.
"Our staff is very well trained, very knowledgeable, and they'll spend 20 minutes with somebody if they need to educate them on the benefits of a specific product," he said. "If you're buying it online and you don't know who you're dealing with, you don't know what kind of products you're getting. It's not tested. It could have pesticides in it."
Other information, such as THC levels and packaging dates, are made available through the store's product.
Stores such as Sky High can stake more of an online claim now that a recent regulation change allows them to take orders, essentially reservations, through their website, though the product must be picked up and paid for in person.
Since receiving its license last summer and reopening Sept. 30, Mussett said there were some ups and downs in the early days, but things have subsequently gotten on track.
"Initially, it was quite a steep learning curve, for sure. Now, we order all our products through the Liquor and Cannabis Distribution (LCD) branch," he said. "The packaging is totally different now than what we were doing before. It's all childproof packaging, which is a great thing.
"Initially, a lot of the product was old because it had been sitting in the LCD's warehouse for quite a while, so we had to combat that with customers and explain that we don't know, when we order the products, how old it is."
After about six months of hit-or-miss merchandise, because there was more product than there were licensed stores to sell it, the quality has been consistently good as more outlets have been approved, according to Mussett.
During the pandemic, the industry was declared essential and Mussett said supply chains have stayed strong. In-store, they've made moves similar to other retail stores by installing Plexiglass dividers and limiting the number of customers inside at one time.
"It's been actually quite nice because it just provides a nice, steady flow all day long. You don't get a rush of 20 people coming in all at the same time," he said.
One industry-specific change because of the pandemic is that Sky High cannot open any product in-store, so display jars, or "smell jars" are not allowed.
"We would put out samples of all the different strains of cannabis that we had. People could look at it, see it, smell it," he said. "Now we can't do that, so they have no way to view the product.
"But people are dealing with it."
With more retail locations coming, Mussett said he's appreciative.
"The more the stigma is reduced around cannabis and it's accepted widely, the better," he said.
