How $10K of cannabis was delivered to the wrong Toronto store — and then disappeared

OCS says it's a "rare" case, while the retailer is calling for faster enforcement by government regulators.

How $10,000 worth of cannabis was delivered to the wrong Ontario store

A licensed cannabis retailer in Toronto is facing a backlash after $10,000 worth of cannabis went missing. The store manager says the shipment was delivered to the wrong location, left in an alley and then stolen. He's now demanding action from provincial regulators. CBC's Farah Merali reports on the story.

A large shipment of cannabis goes wrong

Taylor Caldwell, manager of Kindling Cannabis Leaside in Toronto, is used to receiving cannabis shipments: he gets a call, finds out when it's due, receives and signs the order, then adds it to the store's inventory.

But the delivery on December 28, 2024, was anything but routine. He received a call that the shipment would arrive by noon, but the package never arrived at his store near Eglinton Ave E. and Laird Dr.

“Nobody showed up. We didn’t get a response,” Caldwell says. When I finally got through to the same driver who called, he said again that the shipment would be there within the hour.”

But still, nothing was delivered. He called the driver several times, but the calls went to voicemail. The next business day, he called the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS)—the only licensed cannabis supplier in the province of Ontario—and was surprised to learn that the shipment had indeed been delivered.

OCS sent him proof of delivery, but Caldwell noticed that the signatures didn’t match any of its employees. He suggested to OCS that the shipment might have been mistakenly delivered to a store two blocks away.

The OCS representative confirmed that the shipment was picked up by a nearby store and that an employee left the boxes in the alley behind Caldwell’s store.

Robbery in less than two minutes

Caldwell checked the alley’s surveillance footage to investigate. At around midnight—an hour after the store closed—someone could be seen leaving about a dozen boxes in the alley behind the store, he said.

But just two minutes later, another person appeared.

“Exactly two minutes later, someone came over, opened one of the boxes, looked inside, and immediately started stealing the boxes,” Caldwell said.

The surveillance footage shows the person taking the boxes one by one.

OCS response and call for stricter enforcement

OCS confirmed it had paid the store $10,000 in damages, but Caldwell is unhappy with the lack of serious follow-up by OCS regulators and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO).

“I want to know why nothing was done? Why nothing was done?” he says, noting that the cannabis has a retail value of between $15,000 and $17,000 and is now on the illegal market.

OCS said in a statement that 99 per cent of its shipments are delivered without incident, and that such incidents are rare.

Both Toronto police and AGCO confirmed they are investigating the matter.

“Policies were not followed”

According to OCS, a licensed retailer is not allowed to sign for a shipment that does not belong to them. There is also a specific process for dealing with misdeliveries.

“Our policies require that stores reseal any boxes they receive and contact OCS immediately so we can take back the product,” OCS explained.

In this case, however, OCS’s policies were not followed.

Neighborhood store’s lack of responsiveness

It’s still unclear why the shipment was signed for by the neighborhood store and why it was left in the alley.

The owner of Happy Spliff—located next door to Kindling Cannabis Leaside—did not respond to CBC’s emails and declined to speak during a visit to the store.

Impact on New Year’s Eve sales

The incident left Caldwell’s store short of product for New Year’s Eve, a time when demand is typically high.

“We placed an emergency order on Monday, but the replacement shipment didn’t arrive until Thursday. So, we were out of product for New Year’s Eve,” he said.

Call for uniform, faster enforcement

Caldwell and other retailers have criticized inconsistent enforcement of the rules.

“There seems to be no consistency in enforcement,” says Matt Maurer, an attorney and head of the cannabis law practice at Torkin Manes LLP.

Retailers are required to follow a strict set of rules, but in practice, they are not enforced properly.

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