The day before 4/20 that celebrates cannabis, one of Ontario’s largest municipalities has voted 8-4 to allow licensed cannabis stores to operate within the city.

When cannabis was first legalized in Canada in 2018, Mississauga opted out of the retail sale of cannabis with Mayor Bonnie Crombie saying they took a “wait and see” approach.

“We’ve been holding out four-and-a-half years to gain more control over zoning and where these stores will be located and we all had concerns about clustering,” said Crombie. “But the examples of  other cities seems to sort this out, they didn’t cluster, they didn’t location next to each other.”

Proponents of lifting Mississauga’s ban say legal storefronts will make illegal cannabis stores less attractive and will keep cannabis business local.

Under provincial law, municipalities don’t have any input on the locations of he stores, other than a minimum of 150 metres between storefronts.