'Shameful': Cannabis customers floored by the amount of plastic packing on their pot

For every gram ofcannabissold there can be as much as 70 grams of packaging waste, according to some of Canada's first cannabis customers.

The amount of plastic, cardboard, foil and wrap that's being used to package and market cannabis seems excessive to many.

"It's really shameful," said Remi Robichaud of Moncton. "Beinga coastal province,they should do something about the amount of plastic that goes into our ocean."

Robichaud says a friend of his used afood scale to compare the weight of a gram of cannabispurchasedat Cannabis NB to the 70 grams worth of plastic, foil, and packaging that it came in.

"Seeing the amount of plastic being used for such small quantities, it's really shameful."

In Nova Scotia, the issue is similar, according to Greg Mac whopurchasedhis cannabis from an NSLC store.

"I think the packaging is pretty excessive," said Mac.

"Look at what comes with one gram of weed you've got a cardboard box that comes in a bottle. That bottle is sealed with more plastic. And you open it up and see how much weed actually comes in the bottle and you think "Wow, there's a lot that's going on there."

Macpurchasedfour grams of cannabis thenshared a photo online of the excess plastic bottles, wrappings and cardboard that was used to package it.

That photo was shared hundreds of times resulting in manyvoicingtheir displeasure with what they consider to be excessive plastic packaging.

"I've been buying from medicaldispensariesfor two years now," said Mac. "And all I ever get is Ziplocbags of differentvariations. And that's always been pretty good for me."

Packaging mandate

Onitswebsite, Health Canada mandates that cannabis"bepackaged in an immediate container that is tamper-evident, child-resistant, prevents contamination and keeps cannabis dry."

It also states that "regulations would require that the immediate container be opaque or translucent. Products could have both an inner and outer package, but every package would need to be labelled in accordance with the proposed requirements."

It also states that each order of cannabisincludeaninformationaldocument developed by Health Canadathat includes health andsafetyinformation.

Robichaudargues cannabis packaging could be made of glass, instead of plastic, and reused, similar tohowcraftbeer producersuse "growlers, "orglass jugs that can be refilled with beer.

Mac agrees and says being able to bring back enough plastic bottles for a discount of their nextpurchasewould be smart in an age where companies and governments around the world havepledged to reduce their own plastic waste and evenban the plastic straw.

"It'll give somebody an incentive and is the smart way to go about it," said Mac.