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New legislation in PEI is clarifying that the province’s 2021 ban on the sale of flavoured vaping products does not apply to the sale of cannabis vapes.
However, a representative for PEI Cannabis tells StratCann that there has been no change in policy in regard to what products PEI Cannabis Management Corporation (PEICMC) can sell. A request for clarification of whether any relevant changes could be coming in the future in the wake of this new legislation was not provided.
Bill 71, An Act to Amend the Tobacco and Electronic Smoking Device Sales and Access Act, was introduced in PEI’s legislature on November 7, 2024. The legislation includes two amendments that clarify the 2021 amendments to the province’s Tobacco and Electronic Smoking Device Sales and Access Act and regulations. Bill 71 passed and received Royal Assent on Friday, November 29, 2024, although it has yet to come into force.
Those amendments point out that the 2021 amendments do not affect the authority of the province’s Cannabis Management Corporation under the Cannabis Management Corporation Act to sell, offer to sell, expose for sale and have in its possession for sale, to persons who may lawfully purchase cannabis items that are related to or used in the consumption of cannabis.
This includes the ability to sell various cannabis products, clarified Nichola Hewitt, solicitor and legislative specialist with the Department of Health and Wellness, during discussions about the bill on November 8. In response to a question from Matthew B. MacFarlane, Green MLA for Borden-Kinkora, about the sale of cannabis distillate vape cartridges, Hewitt said the new amendments address this.
“The Cannabis Management Corporation Act sets out what Cannabis PEI can sell, the products. Right now, as a result of the private member bill that came out several years ago, there was some confusion, and this is clarifying it,” she explained. “Papers are an example.
“Papers are deemed to be part of the tobacco-related products, so Cannabis PEI is saying, ‘Well, you’re governing the papers, so we can’t really sell that or the distillate.
“So, the amendment makes it absolutely clear: something that falls under the authority of the Cannabis Management Corporation Act, this act doesn’t apply to that.”
PEI-based cannabis brand, FIGR, which sells cannabis vapes that are available for purchase in other parts of the country, was briefly mentioned during discussion of the bill by Mathew M. MacFarlane, Green Party MLA for the riding of Borden-Kinkora. MacFarlane noted that FIGR, the brand connected to cannabis producer Canada’s Island Garden, cannot sell its vapes in its home province through PEI Cannabis.
PEI sold nearly $25 million worth of cannabis in 2023-2024.
Cannabis vape pens have been increasingly gaining market share in the legal market. Although dried flower has maintained the its top spot, its overall market share has been declining as inhaled extracts, especially vapes, have been steadily increasing. Sales of dried cannabis declined from 71% market share in 2021-2022 to 64.9% in 2022-2023.
Based on the most recent annual figures from Statistics Canada, the largest contributor to the increase in overall cannabis sales across Canada was inhaled extracts, which rose by 59% in the 2022 to 2023 fiscal year. This category accounted for 67.6% of the $600 million increase in sales from the previous year, or more than $405 million.
In 2022, Newfoundland and Labrador began allowing the sale of cannabis vapes.
The SQDC recently announced it would begin selling cannabis vape products by the fall of 2025, which would make PEI the only province left that does not allow the sale of cannabis vape pens. Despite the ban, one quarter of cannabis-using Quebecers report using cannabis vapes, according to figures from the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ).
A recent report out of New Brunswick showed high levels of pesticides in illegal cannabis vapes, which are often easily found online or in unlicensed stores.
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