Dear Herb: How much weed can I legally store at home?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/10/2018 (2901 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dear Herb: After legalization, how much cannabis can I have in my single-family home?

Dry, fresh, seed, refined, edibles… If I grow four plants, who knows how much will be produced! With dispensary products on hand and homemade baking, the grams add up!

All I can find is that I’m allowed to travel outside my house with a total of 30 grams. — Cannabis Cache

Dear Cannabis Cache: Thanks for your question.

You are correct that after legalization on Oct. 17, the maximum possession limit for recreational cannabis in a public place will be 30 grams of dried cannabis, or the equivalent thereof (we’ll get to that later).

The federal law doesn’t set any limit on how much cannabis you can possess in a private home, but before you start filling up every corner of your house with weed just because you can, be aware that some provincial governments have established their own private possession limits.

Under Quebec’s current cannabis law, for example, an individual can’t possess more than 150 grams of dried cannabis, or the equivalent, in a residence. If a person gets caught with more than the limit, they could face fines ranging from $250 to $750 for a first offence, or twice that for repeat offenders. (It’s worth noting that Quebec just elected a new government that could potentially change that law.)

British Columbia recently released its own provincial regulations that will limit private possession of non-medical cannabis to a total of 1,000 grams or the equivalent.

Let’s talk about those equivalencies. The government’s standard unit of measurement for marijuana is one gram of dried cannabis, but as you mentioned, that’s not the only form of cannabis available.

According to the equivalencies schedule in the Cannabis Act, the following are equal to one gram of dried cannabis for legal purposes:

• 5 grams of fresh cannabis (for example, newly harvested bud before it’s dried and cured)
• 70 grams of non-solids containing cannabis (for example, ingestible cannabis oils)
• 1 cannabis seed

So, after legalization a Canadian adult will be able to walk around in public carrying up to 30 cannabis seeds without breaking the law. In private, an adult could legally possess an infinite number of cannabis seeds, unless they live in Quebec or B.C.

Finally, remember that all of these rules surrounding cannabis possession apply specifically to legal cannabis — that is, legally-produced cannabis obtained under legal circumstances from a government-licensed retailer (or grown at home in accordance with the law).

Possession of illicit cannabis — such as anything purchased from a dispensary pre-legalization — will remain illegal. You can learn more about that by reading this article.

Got a question about cannabis? Herb answers your questions about legal consumption and growing, the law, etiquette — you name it, he’ll look into it.

First, please check this list of questions already answered by Herb. Then, email dearherb@theleafnews.com, or to submit anonymously, fill out the form below. Please include an email address if you’d like to be notified when Herb answers your question:  

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