For some, the holidays are a time of tradition and togetherness. For others, it’s a tinsel-covered hell on Earth. Whatever your perspective, we bet every chocolate in our advent calendar that wreaths aren’t the only green making a cameo this holiday season.
With this being the first holiday season where cannabis is legal in Canada, we thought we’d offer a guide to help navigate etiquette around cannabis during the holidays. That’s why we spoke to etiquette expert Mindy Lockard and founder and CEO of Altitude Products Krista Whitley for a five-part weediquette guide for the season.
Sure, cannabis is legal, but should it be regarded similarly to alcohol when it comes to the holiday tradition of gift-giving? If so, the cannabis industry is in for a profitable season. In 2016, the LCBO recorded a brow-raising total of nearly $2 million in online sales alone between Nov. 6 and Dec. 31 – a net increase of $1.7 million compared to the previous three months.
Unfortunately, due to its legal infancy, cannabis faces different hurdles — mostly social.
“Obviously, the rule of thumb when giving gifts is to think of the needs or wants of the recipient,” Lockard says. “Before giving something like weed, you really want to make sure that it’s something that represents the interests of the recipient and won’t make them feel uncomfortable opening it or put them in a compromising situation.”
If gifts are being opened in front of a group, you should gauge whether everybody in the room is OK with cannabis. If not, give the gift privately. Be courteous – cannabis is only recently legal.
Whitely agrees that cannabis is a perfectly acceptable gift assuming the recipient is of legal age of consumption.
“Personally, I prefer not to gift edibles unless they are low-dose or I know the individual enjoys edibles, because they have a higher risk of overconsumption,” she says.
To avoid judgment, Whitely recommends less ostentatious items. A favourite of hers being her own company’s Bella Mini Bath Bombs, which are CBD-infused. Other, less conspicuous CBD items are often topical, and can even be made at home. Things like: lip balms, skin creams, personal lubricants (for a basket, perhaps?), even a weed-themed subscription box service.
“More than 100 million Americans suffer in pain every day, so I love gifting effective pain balms and remedies to help people feel better,” Whitely says. “But I would not give cannabis as a gift to anyone who is not familiar with plant medicine.”
So how many Canadians intend to gift weed this holiday season? Check out the stats.
This article was originally published by Lift&co.