Originally Posted on LinkedIn Here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/harrisonjordan_weve-all-seen-pre-rolls-with-coloured-paper-activity-7140316876596797440-DTti?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
We’ve all seen pre-rolls with coloured paper or filters, and even sometimes logos or images on those filters.
Which begs the question – just what restrictions are there on what pre-rolls look like and what they can contain?
To start off, we have a prohibition in s. 31 of the Act on selling cannabis that has an “appearance, shape or other sensory attribute or function that there are reasonable grounds to believe could be appealing to young persons.”
That needs to be followed at all times, and you always need to be compliant with this provision regardless of what I’m about to tell you.
The Cannabis Regulations state at s. 93(1) that dried cannabis “must not contain or have on it anything other than” parts of the cannabis plant.
Taken literally, this would mean that dried cannabis cannot be sold as pre-rolls, because pre-roll papers generally do not come from the cannabis plant.
But that’s not how it’s being interpreted.
The pre-roll paper is acting as a dosage mechanism for the dried cannabis. The only section in the Act dealing with restrictions or requirements on dosage forms of dried cannabis is Section 100 of the Regulations, requiring that for dried cannabis intended to be inhaled, “each discrete unit of a cannabis product must not exceed 1.0g.”
The pre-roll paper could be considered a cannabis accessory, and thus cannot impart a “characterizing flavour”.
The surfaces of “any container in which a cannabis product is packaged” must not display an image and must be one uniform colour.
However, this strictly speaking doesn’t apply to what the pre-roll paper can look like or what it can contain in this context.
Cannabis generally already cannot contain a number of substances, and ostensibly this includes within the paper and filters that they are wrapped with.
Thus, it’s pretty open as to how your pre-roll looks, and in terms of composition must generally follow the composition rules that apply to that class of cannabis (and should not impart a characterizing flavour).
Should Health Canada more strictly regulate this or can the industry self-regulate?
Next time, we’ll talk about compliant products using this to their advantage.
