Saskatoon Farmers' Market getting curious about cannabis consumables

The Saskatoon Farmers' Market is curious about cannabis.

Ottawa is aiming to make edible cannabis legal a year after legalizing marijuana for smoking. This would make products  theoretically available for harvest 2019.

And this is where Erika Quiring enters the picture.

Quiring, the operations manager for the market, says she can envision any number of potential edible cannabis products.

"It could be anything from chocolate to pastries to butter — some sort of lovely things like that might be very well for the public, depending what the public wants," she said. "There are a lot of potential niches."

Challenges ahead

The province controls the sale and distribution of cannabis, so it would be involved. Health Canada would likely be involved because it's a food product. As would Justice, because of the legalities.

Still, Quiring believes it's achievable.

"I think the Farmers' Market has so much potential and so much capacity to grow and develop within the community, and I think that the CBD [cannabidiol, a cannabis compound that some believe offers significant medical benefits] and marijuana edibles would be a really good addition to that," she said.

Quiring meets with vendors over the winter. She is hoping that someone will come forward with a pitch.

"The Farmers' Market does not administer what people sell, but we would be very open to receiving applications from people who are interested in selling, for instance, edible products that they have made," she said.