Cannabis in Sherbrooke
Sherbrooke council voted unanimously in September 2018 to ban cannabis in all public places, overruling its own committee, which had proposed designated outdoor smoking areas. The city's bylaw also made it an offence to be under the influence of cannabis in public, a year before Quebec banned public smoking province-wide.
Where can you smoke cannabis in Sherbrooke?
Only on private property that isn't open to the public. Since November 1, 2019, Quebec law has banned smoking and vaping cannabis in every public place, including streets, patios and parks, and we found no Sherbrooke bylaw using the provincial option to reopen parts of its parks.
Sherbrooke got there first. Its 2018 bylaw named streets, parks, dog parks, trails and pedestrian tunnels, and added a ban on being high in public. Mayor Steve Lussier said the city had everything to gain by starting strict and adjusting later, and the chair of the public safety committee said the ban could be revisited in future years. The province's law later covered most of the same ground.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| September 2018 | Council unanimously bans public consumption and public intoxication |
| October 17, 2018 | Legalization; SQDC begins selling online and in its first stores |
| November 1, 2019 | Quebec bans smoking in all public places |
| January 1, 2020 | Legal age rises to 21 |
| March 2023 | SQDC adds 90-minute home delivery across most Sherbrooke postal codes |
What about Sherbrooke's campuses?
Sherbrooke is a university town, and campus rules sit on top of the city's. The Université de Sherbrooke's cannabis policy applies on all its campuses and in any space it rents or occupies, and repeats the provincial ban on smoking cannabis on university grounds. Students living in residence should check the policy before assuming their room counts as private.
What should visitors to Sherbrooke know?
The legal age is 21, and Sherbrooke is under an hour's drive from the Vermont and New Hampshire borders. Taking any amount of cannabis into the United States is illegal, even into states where it's legal, and that includes CBD. Store and delivery rules are set province-wide by the SQDC; see the Quebec page. For help with THC and CBD numbers, see reading cannabis labels.