The Niagara Herbalist is first in west region to apply for cannabis retail license

The first brick-and-mortar cannabis retail store in the Hamilton and Niagara area could be located in St. Catharines.

An application has been filed to open The Niagara Herbaliststore at 33Lakeshore Road, Unit 15 in St. Catharines.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario recently posted public notice of the application online and is accepting public submissions on the location until Feb.20.

The Niagara Herbalist was one of sevenpeople orcompanies selected in the west region of the province'srecent retail licence lottery. Another 20 have been put on a waiting list.

Five licenses have been given to theeast end of the province, two in the north, six in the Greater Toronto Area and five in Toronto.

Recreational cannabis can currently only be purchased legally in Ontario through a government-run website, with the first private stores set to open April 1.

Queen's Park had initially said it would not put a cap on the number of outlets, but later said it would begin with only 25 licences due to what it called serious cannabis supply issues that had to be addressed by the federal government.