Matt Maurer speaks to Global News about the problems with age gates on online cannabis stores

Matt Maurer, vice-chair of our Cannabis Law Group, spoke to Global News about the issues with age gates on online cannabis stores.

Critics say that age gates can’t stop teens from entering the sites — and question whether there’s a point to stopping them anyway — only serving to annoy adults who have a right to be there.

“If you are of an age where you’re old enough to be interested, but you’re young enough that you’re not supposed to be interested, you obviously know by the time you’re 16 how to punch in a birthday that will get you into the website,” Maurer said.

It’s not lost on the cannabis community that kids of any age can enter liquor stores and check out liquor store websites, whose marketing approach is cheerfully promotional, and that root beer vodka coolers that could easily be mistaken for cans of pop are sold.

“When you hear complaints, you hear: ‘Alcohol isn’t treated like this, and there’s a double standard,’” he said.

“That’s a fair point, but what I’ve also heard is: ‘It doesn’t mean we got alcohol right, and maybe if we could go back in time, we wouldn’t do things the way that we currently have with alcohol, and unwinding it is more difficult, so if we take the learnings that we took from alcohol and apply it to cannabis, we’re going to end up with a double standard and a more restrictive set of rules.”

To read the complete interview, visit Global News.