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Quebec’s liquor board to control legal weed sales

News reports also said the province will set the minimum age to 18

Quebec plans to sell recreational cannabis through the province’s liquor board, and will set the minimum legal age to buy and consume it at 18 years old, according to news reports published on Friday.

The province will set up a new crown corporation that will be overseen by the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ), the government’s exclusive vendor for hard liquor, Radio-Canada reported citing government sources. It’s unclear how many storefronts will be set up to sell marijuana in Quebec.

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Quebec’s health minister is expected to introduce a proposed law on recreational cannabis in the coming months, ahead of the federal government’s deadline to allow sales by next summer. The Quebec government has yet to publicly confirm the news reports.

Quebec follows the lead of Ontario and New Brunswick, which announced their initial plans for the sale and distribution of cannabis earlier this month. The legal age to buy and consume alcohol in Quebec is 18 years old, and Premier Philippe Couillard has said repeatedly that setting the minimum age for cannabis any higher would help fuel the black market.

Ontario announced that a new crown corporation would be set up to sell legal weed, also overseen by the province’s liquor authority, the LCBO. Ontario will open 40 stores at first, increasing to 150 by 2020. The legal age of consumption will be 19 years old, the same as it is for alcohol. All illegal dispensaries, which have been quietly tolerated by law enforcement, would be shuttered as the new sales rules come into effect, Ontario’s Attorney General said.

It is not immediately clear what will happen to dozens of dispensaries in Quebec after marijuana distribution is turned over to the government company.

New Brunswick’s finance minister Cathy Rogers announced last week that a new crown corporation would oversee legal weed sales, in partnership with two large cannabis companies that are licensed by Health Canada. Unlike in Ontario, that crown corporation will not run retail operations in New Brunswick. Further details are expected to be laid out soon.

“This is uncharted territory,” Rogers said at a press conference. “Experience will tell us where to go from there.”