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New Brunswick has set up a new Crown corporation that will oversee marijuana sales, but not actually retail the drug, when the federal government’s planned legalization of recreational cannabis goes into effect next July

Provincial Finance Minister Cathy Rogers and Health Minister Benoît Bourque made the announcement Friday in Moncton, adding that New Brunswick has already struck deals with two licensed medical marijuana companies to help supply its recreational market.

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However, the province has still left the door open to a possibly less-restrictive retail regime than the one proposed by Ontario, which is setting up a single, government-run retailer.

“In addition, the creation of this new provincial Crown corporation provides the flexibility and lays the groundwork for the eventual retail model once final decisions around that have been made,” Rogers said in a release.

While New Brunswick intends to have the government maintain “full control” over the sales of non-medicinal cannabis, the release said that the Crown corporation “will not directly conduct retail operations.” Rather, the new agency “will eventually engage with another entity or entities to provide that framework,” Rogers explained, according to the release.