Cannabis in Montréal
You can't smoke or vape cannabis on Montreal's sidewalks, streets or park lawns: the city wanted to allow it, but Quebec's November 2019 law took that choice away, and the city's park rules now prohibit cannabis in any form. Stores in Montreal must be at least 150 metres from a school, shorter than the 250 metres used in the rest of Quebec.
Where can you smoke cannabis in Montreal?
In practice, only on private property that isn't open to the public. Since November 1, 2019, Quebec law bans smoking and vaping cannabis in every public place, indoors and out, including streets, bus shelters, patios and parks. A city can pass a bylaw to reopen parts of its parks, but Montreal hasn't: its park rules say provincial and federal cannabis laws apply in all parks and that consuming any type of cannabis product there is strictly prohibited.
That leaves home, and most Montrealers rent. Mayor Valérie Plante made exactly that argument in 2018, when she said renters whose landlords banned cannabis would have nowhere legal to use it. Check your lease before assuming your apartment counts.
| Place | Allowed? |
|---|---|
| Your own home (if the lease allows it) | Yes |
| Sidewalks and streets | No, since November 2019 |
| City parks, large or small | No, any form of cannabis |
| Bus shelters and transit waiting areas | No |
| Bar and restaurant terraces | No |
| Festival and event sites | No |
| In a car, even parked | No |
How did Montreal end up with these rules?
Montreal took the most relaxed line of any big Quebec city at legalization. In October 2018 the Plante administration said it would add nothing beyond the provincial rules, so smoking stayed legal on sidewalks and in parks, as long as you were more than nine metres from a playground. Public health director Dr. Mylène Drouin backed the choice, worried an outdoor ban would push people indoors. Some boroughs disagreed: Saint-Laurent passed its own public-use ban, and suburbs like Westmount and Hampstead went further still.
The city then lobbied against Quebec's Bill 2, asking in a February 2019 brief to be allowed to keep its rules. It lost. The provincial ban took effect in November 2019, and the legal age rose from 18 to 21 on January 1, 2020.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| December 2016 | Police raid a chain of unlicensed shops the day after they open; 10 arrested |
| October 10, 2018 | City confirms smoking stays legal on sidewalks and in parks |
| October 17, 2018 | Three SQDC stores open in Montreal; the downtown line starts before 4 a.m. |
| February 2019 | City asks Quebec for an exemption from the coming public ban |
| November 1, 2019 | Provincial ban on smoking in all public places takes effect |
| January 1, 2020 | Legal age rises to 21 |
Where can cannabis stores open in Montreal?
Only the SQDC, Quebec's government retailer, can sell cannabis, so there are no private dispensaries to find. Stores have to be at least 150 metres from a preschool, elementary or secondary school in Montreal, against 250 metres elsewhere in the province. Since 2019 that buffer also covers vocational, adult education and CEGEP campuses, but not universities, and a municipality can grant an exception through its zoning bylaw. The provincial rules are on the Quebec page.
What should visitors to Montreal know?
You need to be 21 to buy, possess or enter a store, even if you're older than the age back home. Montreal is about an hour from the US border and its airport has flights to the United States: taking any cannabis across an international border is illegal, in either direction and in any amount, including CBD. Domestic flights are a different matter, but the rules at your destination still apply. If you're new to the products on the shelf, our guide to reading cannabis labels explains the THC and CBD numbers.
