Cannabis is going to be legalized in across Canada next Wednesday, October 17, but that doesn’t mean everyone is going to be able to buy and consume legal weed then.

Not being able to get hands on the legal stuff will be the situation a lot of Canadians find themselves in come legalization day. To be blunt (hehe) about it, the provincial government's rollouts on legal weed aren’t fair nor equal. Yes, all the provinces will be offering an online service to ship weed to their residents but none are advertising same-day delivery. This means that, sadly, on national Weed Is Legal Day there are going to be some who won’t be able to get nice and baked off legal kush and will be forced to get weed the same way we’ve always purchased weed.

Smoking or vaping pot in Alberta's national park towns won't be easy for residents or those visiting to enjoy mountain views.

Shying away from becoming cannabis tourist attractions, Jasper and Banff township officials say they're regulating pot for the comfort and protection of their residents. Both municipalities have chosen to ban smoking and vaping cannabis in public. 

Not looking at tourism 

Jasper is defining public space the same way it is written in the liquor act, meaning: you can't smoke or vape in any vehicle in a public place or building accessible to the public. Mayor Richard Ireland underlines that includes parking lots. 

Eager pot buyers hoping to score some weed when Canada goes legal next week could be in for a bummer.

Across the nation, only a handful of retail locations will be up and running on Oct. 17, including just one store in British Columbia and none in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. Producers, meanwhile, are unlikely to come close to meeting initial demand due to delays in getting licences and signing supply agreements. The result will be limited selections of dried bud and oils for consumers.

Canadian marijuana giant Aurora Cannabis has filed an application to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, a move that would make it the second major plant-touching company to trade on the Big Board – and the latest from Canada to establish roots on Wall Street.

If approved, the Edmonton-based company could begin trading on the NYSE before the end of the month, Aurora announced in a news release. Aurora would join Canopy Growth, which began trading on the Big Board in May.

Walmart Inc.’s Canadian arm has been investigating the possibility of selling cannabis-based products but doesn’t intend to get into the much-hyped business yet.

“As we would for any new industry, Walmart Canada has done some preliminary fact-finding on this issue, but we do not have plans to carry CBD products at this time,” spokeswoman Diane Medeiros said in an email, referring to cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis plants.

Interest in CBD has been booming as Canada prepares to legalize recreational marijuana next week and several large alcohol and consumer products companies have indicated they’re studying CBD’s commercial possibilities.

With just over a week to go until legalization, the BC government has said that “new and amended regulations” are now in place “to support British Columbia’s legal cannabis regime and prioritize the health and safety of British Columbians.”

With just one week to go before the first legal weed Wednesday, the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation (NSLC) has announced what online cannabis sales are going to look like.

For consumers living far from one of the province’s 12 cannabis retail stores, those who don’t want to wait in long lineups, or those who aren’t comfortable purchasing pot in public, the online option is likely to be preferable.

The Canadian government is confident there will be enough marijuana to pass around despite concerns of a looming supply shortage as the nation rolls out legal sales next week.

Canada is “well positioned” to supply cannabis as the country transitions to a legal market on Oct. 17, with 66 licensed producers given the go-ahead to sell marijuana, said Mathieu Filion, a spokesman for Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor. More than 160 expansions or modifications of existing facilities have been approved since June 2017 and the government estimates the nation’s licensed growers have in excess of 11 million square feet of space as of the end of June, including space for cultivation and office space and storage.

Canadian think-tank the C.D. Howe Institute prepared a report stating that at current levels the country’s legal cannabis supply will only meet roughly 30 to 60 percent of demand following the start of recreational sales later this month. The report, which is set to be published soon estimates that Canadians will expect to purchase upwards of 610.6 metric tons of cannabis, with the total made available in the fourth quarter by the country’s Licensed Producers coming somewhere closer to 146.13 metric tons.

Yannick Craigwell doesn’t need to guess how large the Canadian appetite will be for edible pot once it’s legal. He already knows that it’s huge.

The Vancouver entrepreneur whips up marijuana-infused cookies, brownies and fudge that he sells online through his company Treats and Treats.

“Once it becomes legal, I think the only thing that’s going to change is you’re going to get the people who were raised to think ... ‘Weed is bad, it’s the devil’s lettuce,’ and they’re going to be open to trying,” he said.

“It’s not really anything to be afraid of, but we are stigmatized by the laws that we have on the books.”