Blenheim's first retail cannabis is store is getting ready to open and it will also mark Chatham-Kent's first locally owned dispensary.
Higher Limits Cannabis Company will open its doors to the public on Tuesday.
President Greg Kazarian was born and raised in Chatham-Kent and operates the company with his business partner Philip Bradbury.
The pair said that supporting local businesses and being locally-oriented was a large part of their mission.
According to Bradbury, the store was able to hire seven Chatham-Kent residents to work at the shop, known as "budtenders." Bradbury added that for work on the store itself, they made sure to use as many local services as possible.
"We find this is a very local conscious area. We find there's a lot of support for local businesses, there's a lot of chatter about local business. It just kind of seems like an ideal place to be," Bradbury said. "Greg is very proud of what we're doing here and so am I. He's very proud of our ability to employ local contractors, use local services and to keep as much of the money that we have to spend as local as possible."
Bradbury said he and Kazarian have been working on establishing themselves in the cannabis industry since it became legal in Canada in 2018. The two entered the first Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) lottery system in hopes of being awarded a cannabis retail store licence. In late 2019, The province axed the lottery system and removed the cap on the number of private pot shops in the province, allowing any prospective retailer to submit an application for a retail licence.
Bradbury said one of the goals for Higher Limits from the beginning was to bring a dispensary to an under-serviced community. He also hopes that the Blenheim store will be able to act as a centralized location for nearby communities including Rondeau and Erieau.
"It seemed that roughly half of all the applications to open a cannabis store in Ontario were in the [Greater Toronto Area]. When you looked at the mid-sized cities across the province, it was still a massive concentration," explained Bradbury. "It just kind of became my desire, as well as Greg's, to try and service these smaller towns where a lot of people who are thinking about maybe trying cannabis, or switching to buying legal cannabis or just wanting to learn more about the product, they're in a situation where up until recently you had to drive all the way to London. We're just looking to bridge that gap."
After a lengthy process, the store officially got its retail authorization on Monday from the AGCO, confirming that it passed all the requirements needed to operate. There are several compliances and regulations that must be followed in order to operate a retail cannabis store in Ontario, including ensuring the store is within a certain distance from a school or daycare. Operators also have to put strict security measures in place and are not allowed to have any cannabis product visible from the outside of the store.
Now that the shop has received its retail authorization, Bradbury and Kazarian will be ordering product from the government. AGCO officials will also come in for one final inspection to make sure the store meets all the necessary requirements before it can open.
Bradbury said Higher Limits hopes to provide a non-intimidating and personable shopping experiencing to its customers.
"It really floored me to see the passion of the people that Greg has found to work at this location, the passion they have for the cannabis industry...they know so much about the product and are so passionate about teaching other people and helping other people figure out what might have a positive benefit on their life," he said. "That's been one often most exciting things for me to see."
Higher Limits Cannabis Company is located at 52 Catherine St. and will officially open on October 6 at 10 a.m. The company also has two other stores in the works, one in Amherstburg, which Bradbury said will be open in December and a Chatham location set to open in the spring of 2021.