Planned pot home-delivery app like Skip the Dishes, but 'for the fun stuff'

Saskatoon could soon be home to an app that allows people to have legal pot and alcohol delivered straight to their front door.

Three partners, including Saskatoon's Sam Bahm, are planning an early September launch for Designated Delivery, a smartphone app that, in the style of Skip the Dishes, will allow people to order and track deliveries of cannabis and champagne like so much chicken chow mein.

"Our main focus is we want to cut down on the impaired drivers on the road," said Bahm, the co-founder and CEO of recently incorporated Ambrosa Technologies Inc.

"But obviously since [cannabis] is going to be legal there will be people that will have a stigma about it and don't want to be seen in a shop, so we'll provide a convenient platform for them to just shop from their home."

It's also a no-brainer in today's digital age, he says.

"Everything else can be ordered through an app and delivered right to your door," said Bahm. "So we feel especially the one thing that shouldn't be mixed in any way with driving should be no different."

Bahm is teaming up with his Kelowna, B.C.-based sister, Amber, and their cousin and coder, Robin, with another person poised to become a fourth partner.

Starting in Saskatoon and B.C.'s Okanagan region, the partners will launch the app by offering delivery of alcohol, then add cannabis once it becomes legal on Oct. 17, said Bahm.

Photo ID required upon delivery

One of the more delicate aspects of the operation will involve making sure no pot or alcohol makes its way to a Saskatchewan resident under the age of 19.

• Legalization sparks hundreds of Saskatchewan cannabis jobs

According to the rules set out earlier this year by the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority, "Retailers will be able to deliver up to 30 grams of dried cannabis (or the equivalent in other authorized forms) to customers at their homes," but an employee has to check for proof of age upon delivery.

"ID must be checked on all transactions, regardless of apparent age," the SLGA regulations say.

Bahm said users of Designated Delivery will have to provide a scan of government-issued photo ID, such as a driver's licence, when registering for the service.

"The person receiving the product [at the door] will have to provide that same ID that we have on our app and be that person," said Bahm.

All Designated drivers will also take SLGA's "Serve It Right Saskatchewan" workshop, which trains servers in how to identify intoxicated people and deal with minors.  

Ambrosa has its Saskatchewan liquor licence (which all drivers will possess) and is in talks with many of the successful Saskatoon cannabis retail permittees about becoming their go-to delivery service, said Bahm. Drivers will undergo criminal record checks, he added. 

"We think it's going to take off huge, so it's going to provide tons of jobs for drivers when we start hitting bigger cities," he said.