Recreational marijuana becomes legal in Canada on Wednesday — but what does that mean in practice?

On Wednesday, October 17th, Canada will become the second country in the world where marijuana is legal on a national level, as Bill C-45, approved by Parliament in June, goes into effect. Adults will be able to possess up to 30 grams of pot and grow as many as four plants of any size per household; otherwise, additional regulations maybe be enacted at the province level.

Americans who are planning to travel to the country in the near future should know that it won’t be a complete cannabis free-for-all – fewer than 200 retailers country-wide will be open for business on Day One. On the West Coast, British Columbia will have just one government-run marijuana store, in the city of Kamloops, to start. On the east coast, Montreal will have quite a few more options, with 12 marijuana shops set to open on Wednesday, and another three to follow by the end of the month. By the end of the year, there will be 20 cannabis stores up and running across Quebec, all of which will be monopolized by the government-run Société Québécoise du Cannabis (SQDC), an offshoot of the government’s liquor store monopoly. While Quebec has handed control over to the local government, other provinces are planning to spread the wealth and issuing licenses to private distributors.

– Read the entire article at Rolling Stone.