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This article was published 2/10/2018 (721 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cannabis store employees in Manitoba are busy learning how to sell — and how not to sell — marijuana come legalization on Oct. 17.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Canada chief executive officer Andrew Murie led part of a Tuesday training session for about 15 future Delta 9 Cannabis store workers at the company’s headquarters in an east Winnipeg industrial park, teaching them how to navigate scenarios such as refusing to serve an intoxicated customer.

"Just keep apologizing — ‘I’m sorry. It’s not personal, it’s the law. If you come back tomorrow I’d be glad to serve you,’" suggested Murie, as he walked his students through a hypothetical case involving an inebriated shopper who was angry after being turned away.

Asking ineligible customers to leave a cannabis store, Murie warned, "is not comfortable, you’ll not feel good after it, but you did the right thing."

JEN DOERKSEN/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Delta 9 retail employees listen as Andrew Murie, Chief Executive Officer of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) gives an instructional lecture on how to sell marijuana products responsibly.

Other topics for Murie’s students included how to refuse service to someone without proper age identification, how to determine whether customers might be illegally buying cannabis on behalf of a minor, and how to alert police if an intoxicated customer is refused service and drives away from the store.

Murie said the MADD Canada course, delivered in partnership with cannabis technology and education firm Lift & Co., is very similar to the kind of training that might be provided to liquor store employees, but with an added emphasis on legal liability, impaired driving and recognizing the signs of cannabis intoxication.

JEN DOERKSEN/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Andrew Murie, Chief Executive Officer of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)

"A piece of it’s based on the ‘smart serve’ type of programs that are for bars and licensed establishments," said Murie, who has already delivered about 25 such training courses to employees of government-operated cannabis stores in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Eventually, he expects MADD Canada’s cannabis retail training courses to be available online.

"We want to make sure that we always sell the product in a socially responsible manner," said Al Roney, vice-president of retail operations with Delta 9 Cannabis.

The company is currently training between 35 and 40 part- and full-time store staff in Manitoba, Roney said.

Training for those workers will include a mandatory course from cannabis regulator Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manitoba, as well as online retail training courses from the Retail Sales Academy, and violence de-escalation training provided by the Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute.

"The training is going to cover anything that a typical retail environment would cover," said Roney. "Obviously, product knowledge is huge in serving customers, and in giving them good advice on products and understanding the characteristics.

"Pure customer service, how to greet customers, how to explain things to them, obviously, thanking them at the end of their sale. Being aware of potential security issues, not only from a social responsibility point of view but from a potential shop theft point of view, as well."

Checking and verifying customer identification at the door will also be a key concern, Roney said, so employees will be trained on how to spot fake IDs.

Under the new federal Cannabis Act, selling marijuana to a person under the age of 18 will be a criminal offence.

In Manitoba, new provincial laws also prohibit supplying cannabis to a person under the age of 19 or to an intoxicated person, as well as attempting to purchase cannabis or enter a cannabis store using fraudulent identification. Giving a young person identification in order to purchase cannabis or enter a cannabis store is also banned by law in Manitoba.

Aside from the many legal considerations for cannabis store employees, other aspects of Delta 9’s retail training focus on the ins and outs of cannabis itself.

Trevor Duncan will be a manager at Delta 9’s Osborne Village location at 478 River Ave. He said Lift & Co.’s training materials have given him and his future staff "a lot of cannabis knowledge" about the various psychoactive chemical compounds contained in the plant, as well as "a way to speak to customers who are at all different levels of experience, and levels of knowledge as well."

"Discussing how to recommend products to someone who is brand new is a really important part," Duncan said.

"We want to develop a personal relationship with every one of our customers, we believe that’s a great way to deliver high levels of customer service. So we’re going to talk to you, we’re going to find out how you’re doing, where you’re at with your experience with cannabis, and ask some questions that are going to give us some information — and from there we could start making recommendations on potential strains and products."

Duncan, who previously worked as a Starbucks store manager, said Manitobans should "be ready to have a conversation about cannabis" when they go shopping at legal outlets starting Oct. 17.

But in order to even set foot in those stores, he noted, they’ll need to have valid photo ID.

solomon.israel@theleafnews.com

Twitter: @sol_israel