8 year old wins $200 worth of cannabis products at minor hockey tournament

Parents in Dawson Creek, British Columbia are left questioning why the town’s minor hockey association felt it was appropriate for one of the teams in a local tournament to put together a “weed gift basket” for one “lucky” child.

Keith Redl said his grandson plays Novice hockey (ages 7 and 8) in Dawson Creek and he was shocked to find out that the association offered up a basket with $200 worth of cannabis products as a donation.

“Each team is usually responsible for putting a gift basket or prize package together with a minimum value of $50,” he said in a phone interview. “And then what they do is they have a big setup and they have a paper bag taped in front of each one of these prizes.”

The prizes had traditionally been geared towards kids or families in the past, and include things like movie tickets, card games or family board games, or snacks like popcorn and candy. Well… not this year…

“And then at the end of the tournament (…) (the family) was notified that he won the one prize and it was this prize of $200 worth of pot.”

“My grandson thought he won a great prize,” Redl said. “‘Dad, I won chocolate!’ ‘No, son, there’s bad drugs in the chocolate.’ How do you explain that to a kid?”

Dawson Creek Minor Hockey however released a statement confirming that the products were never near children and that they raffle draw winner how to show legal ID before claiming their prize.

“Amongst a number of prizes donated was a basket of cannabis products,” they wrote. “The products did not appear on the donation table, only a photo and list of the items contained in the basket.”

“The raffle winner was told the basket contained cannabis products and was given the option of not accepting the prize,” the statement said, referring to Redl’s adult son, who had picked up the prize. “The winner chose to take the prize, their identification was checked to ensure they were of legal age (19+), and the donor then delivered the basket to the winners.”

Still Redl isn’t please with the way things have been handled. 

“I was a policeman for 32 years and you (…) try to protect people from stuff and then your eight-year-old grandson brings up running into this, it’s just ridiculous,” he said. 

“There is no place for drugs at a child’s hockey tournament.”