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Why is Canada running out of marijuana?

JacksinPA

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46200873

Demand for legal cannabis is higher than expected in Canada

Cannabis retailers in Canada began to run low on supplies from the very first day of legalisation a month ago. How long are shortages expected to continue as the new market for recreational cannabis finds its feet?

In the early days of legalisation, James Burns was confident his company had enough product on the shelves of its five new cannabis retail stores, even though they only received half of their order from the provincial supplier.

Now, he has had staff refreshing the government supply website in the early hours to snap up scarce new stock as soon as it's available, and is considering restricting store hours.
====================================
It's very difficult to plan for the future in an entirely new market.
 
Damn Canadiens are gonna smoke it all up before we down here can get it legal in all states...........:mrgreen:
 
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46200873

Demand for legal cannabis is higher than expected in Canada

Cannabis retailers in Canada began to run low on supplies from the very first day of legalisation a month ago. How long are shortages expected to continue as the new market for recreational cannabis finds its feet?

In the early days of legalisation, James Burns was confident his company had enough product on the shelves of its five new cannabis retail stores, even though they only received half of their order from the provincial supplier.

Now, he has had staff refreshing the government supply website in the early hours to snap up scarce new stock as soon as it's available, and is considering restricting store hours.
====================================
It's very difficult to plan for the future in an entirely new market.

Damn! And I just bought stock in a Canadian Cannabis company :(

But wait - lack of supply might increase demand which will increase price - nevermind!
 
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There’s a few things that are annoying me about this situation.

1. Speculators were all over the map before legalization, some said there wouldn’t be enough, some said there’d be oversupply and there’d be a lot of people ruined.

2. Apparently they’re already finding some producers given licenses by Health Canada are criminal enterprises because they were only looking at the first layer of ownership.

3. To go back to 1. For a second, there’s all of a sudden people calling the whole enterprise a failure because of the shortage, the only people that could be ruined in this environment is physical retailers as in many parts of the country, lack of supply has forced closures and partial hours.

Store owners talking about people passive aggressively saying “well, back to the black market”.

Well, look, we are the first country country to do legalization on this scale, it wasn’t gonna be perfect, there’s gonna be growing pains, there’s gonna be kinks, it’s a brave new industry and this is part of the process, October 17th didn’t mean all the stars would align and everything was gonna be perfect.
 
Damn! And I just bought stock in a Canadian Cannabis company :(

But wait - lack of supply might increase demand which will increase price - nevermind!

Heh. Good luck. Actually, if one assumes a constant demand that exceeds available supply, that would be sufficient to trigger a price increase by itself. No demand increase is necessary. Stay the course.
 
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46200873

Demand for legal cannabis is higher than expected in Canada

Cannabis retailers in Canada began to run low on supplies from the very first day of legalisation a month ago. How long are shortages expected to continue as the new market for recreational cannabis finds its feet?

In the early days of legalisation, James Burns was confident his company had enough product on the shelves of its five new cannabis retail stores, even though they only received half of their order from the provincial supplier.

Now, he has had staff refreshing the government supply website in the early hours to snap up scarce new stock as soon as it's available, and is considering restricting store hours.
====================================
It's very difficult to plan for the future in an entirely new market.

I wonder. Is Canada short of pot or just the legal outlets? I live in a place that has historically been a major producer and it's all business as usual here. If the legal outlets are paying too little tothe growers and charging the customers too much the whole system will be ignored and people will get their ganja from the same guy they dealt with before legalization. No grower is going to sell legally for less than his old contacts paid either. Not for a lot less, anyway.
Pot distribution has been perfected already. If the legal outlets want to participate they'll have to be competitive.
 
I wonder. Is Canada short of pot or just the legal outlets?

Both.

It's been legal now for a month and there still isn't a physical retailer within 100km of where I live.

But for those physical retailers that are open, in many parts of the country, they've got a massive shortage of stock, they're on partial hours or are simply closing:

https://globalnews.ca/news/4662574/legal-marijuana-canada-shortage-cannabis-producers/

Provinces including British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have all reported varying degrees of shortages.


New Brunswick was forced to temporarily close more than half its stores, while the Quebec Cannabis Corporation has reduced its store opening hours to four days a week. Labrador’s only legal cannabis store said it was forced to temporarily close after being without any product for nearly two weeks.

snip

Brenda and Trevor Tobin, the mother-and-son owners of Labrador City’s High North, said demand at the store currently far outweighs the available supply.

The shop sold all of its cannabis in the first three hours on legalization day, and in the weeks following, products dried up for almost two weeks.

Brenda Tobin said she continues to sell product faster than producers are able to deliver it. She said that has prompted some of her customers to buy cannabis illegally.

snip

The Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation said it received less than 40 per cent of the product it ordered from 14 licensed producers in August, but was able to bring in inventory from a P.E.I. producer days before legalization to help address the shortage.

The shortages meant that three Nova Scotia cannabis stores closed early a few hours early on three occasions during the first week of legalization. There have not been any closures since then.

Cannabis NB said it received 20 to 30 per cent of its order for legalization day. It said 12 of the province’s 20 stores were forced to temporarily close in the last few weeks, but have all since reopened.
 
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46200873

Demand for legal cannabis is higher than expected in Canada

Cannabis retailers in Canada began to run low on supplies from the very first day of legalisation a month ago. How long are shortages expected to continue as the new market for recreational cannabis finds its feet?

In the early days of legalisation, James Burns was confident his company had enough product on the shelves of its five new cannabis retail stores, even though they only received half of their order from the provincial supplier.

Now, he has had staff refreshing the government supply website in the early hours to snap up scarce new stock as soon as it's available, and is considering restricting store hours.
====================================
It's very difficult to plan for the future in an entirely new market.

This part caught my attention:

Now, he has had staff refreshing the government supply website in the early hours to snap up scarce new stock as soon as it's available, and is considering restricting store hours.

The appears to mean that the government buys the product from the growers and then sells it to the retailers. Is this correct?

If it is, then there's the problem: Get the government out of the supply chain. The law of supply and demand will take care of the problem.

btw, I'm sure there are a number of American growers who would LOVE to get a piece of that Canadian action. It's probably too much to ask that Congress gets together with Canada to make that possible.
 
This part caught my attention:



The appears to mean that the government buys the product from the growers and then sells it to the retailers. Is this correct?

If it is, then there's the problem: Get the government out of the supply chain. The law of supply and demand will take care of the problem.

btw, I'm sure there are a number of American growers who would LOVE to get a piece of that Canadian action. It's probably too much to ask that Congress gets together with Canada to make that possible.

As for American growers getting access to the Canadian market, it might be legal to move pot from Washington State across the border into Canada since it wouldn't have to cross another state where it's not legal, but it's still illegal to move pot from Canada into the US. Sounds exactly like the type of international trade that Trump would call fair.
 
As for American growers getting access to the Canadian market, it might be legal to move pot from Washington State across the border into Canada since it wouldn't have to cross another state where it's not legal, but it's still illegal to move pot from Canada into the US. Sounds exactly like the type of international trade that Trump would call fair.

I haven't heard Trump weigh in on the federal legality of pot, but if it were legal I think he would be all in on coming to some kind of agreement with Canada on free trade between the two countries.

I think the roadblock in that situation would be on the Canadian side. They tend to use their government to protect their industries.
 
I haven't heard Trump weigh in on the federal legality of pot, but if it were legal I think he would be all in on coming to some kind of agreement with Canada on free trade between the two countries.

I think the roadblock in that situation would be on the Canadian side. They tend to use their government to protect their industries.

Not nearly to the extent the US does. Unless the American growers follow the American agricultural pattern of applying hormones and steroids to everything that can't be genetically modified, then they might find themselves shut out of certain foreign markets where those things aren't allowed.
 
Not nearly to the extent the US does. Unless the American growers follow the American agricultural pattern of applying hormones and steroids to everything that can't be genetically modified, then they might find themselves shut out of certain foreign markets where those things aren't allowed.

shrug...whatever.

But just so you know, there's no shortage of pot here in Colorado. Just saying...
 
shrug...whatever.

But just so you know, there's no shortage of pot here in Colorado. Just saying...

None here either. It's just the legal outlets that are having supply problems. They're probably not paying growers enough.
It was nearly a gimme that the new, legal system would have problems gaining traction. The supply network is pretty much perfected already- the only way it can be improved is with on-line ordering, and my guess is that most potheads aren't willing to wait two or three days when they can just call the guy they've always dealt with.
 
None here either. It's just the legal outlets that are having supply problems. They're probably not paying growers enough.
It was nearly a gimme that the new, legal system would have problems gaining traction. The supply network is pretty much perfected already- the only way it can be improved is with on-line ordering, and my guess is that most potheads aren't willing to wait two or three days when they can just call the guy they've always dealt with.

Ummm…

I was referring to legal pot sales here in Colorado.

But back to the point in my first post...your supply network can be greatly improved by removing the government. All the government needs to do is give out licenses and collect taxes from the retailers. Having the government buy the product from the growers and then sell it to the retailers is unnecessary, adds a layer of bureaucracy and screws with the law of supply and demand.
 
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46200873

Demand for legal cannabis is higher than expected in Canada

Cannabis retailers in Canada began to run low on supplies from the very first day of legalisation a month ago. How long are shortages expected to continue as the new market for recreational cannabis finds its feet?

In the early days of legalisation, James Burns was confident his company had enough product on the shelves of its five new cannabis retail stores, even though they only received half of their order from the provincial supplier.

Now, he has had staff refreshing the government supply website in the early hours to snap up scarce new stock as soon as it's available, and is considering restricting store hours.
====================================
It's very difficult to plan for the future in an entirely new market.
Watched a desperate medical marijuana user on Canadian TV the other day talking about that he cannot get the medicinal marijuana that he needs since legalization.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
 
Why is Canada running out of marijuana?

sounds like supply is not keeping up with demand. maybe they need to grow more.
 
Ummm…

I was referring to legal pot sales here in Colorado.

But back to the point in my first post...your supply network can be greatly improved by removing the government. All the government needs to do is give out licenses and collect taxes from the retailers. Having the government buy the product from the growers and then sell it to the retailers is unnecessary, adds a layer of bureaucracy and screws with the law of supply and demand.

I don't think that's how it is, the government acting as middle man, but I'm not sure. I do know for a fact that some medical dispensaries, who are supposed to buy only from licensed growers, buy black-market pot through the back door from growers I know who have never got around to applying for a license. It's a pain in the ass, having to conform to security standards and quality-control measures and whatnot. In fact, medical dispensaries were supposed to have closed and applied for a different license to sell recreational pot but most haven't bothered.
The laws about distribution vary from province to province. I'd be surprised to hear that a provincial government insists that legal shops get their product from a government agency. It's probably just that they have to buy from a licensed grower and there's just not enough of them or they charge too much and the black market is taking up the slack. Like I said, the drug market is pretty much a perfected system and if the government thinks they can improve on it they've got their work cut out for them. The wheel doesn't have to be reinvented.
 
sounds like supply is not keeping up with demand. maybe they need to grow more.

No, like I said Canada isn't running out of pot, just the legal outlets. The distribution system in place is hard to improve on and it's turning into a struggle for those who want to go the legal route to compete with, that's all.
 
I wonder. Is Canada short of pot or just the legal outlets? I live in a place that has historically been a major producer and it's all business as usual here. If the legal outlets are paying too little tothe growers and charging the customers too much the whole system will be ignored and people will get their ganja from the same guy they dealt with before legalization. No grower is going to sell legally for less than his old contacts paid either. Not for a lot less, anyway.
Pot distribution has been perfected already. If the legal outlets want to participate they'll have to be competitive.

It must be tough to cultivate "Colombian Gold" in the tundra.
 
I don't think that's how it is, the government acting as middle man, but I'm not sure. I do know for a fact that some medical dispensaries, who are supposed to buy only from licensed growers, buy black-market pot through the back door from growers I know who have never got around to applying for a license. It's a pain in the ass, having to conform to security standards and quality-control measures and whatnot. In fact, medical dispensaries were supposed to have closed and applied for a different license to sell recreational pot but most haven't bothered.
The laws about distribution vary from province to province. I'd be surprised to hear that a provincial government insists that legal shops get their product from a government agency. It's probably just that they have to buy from a licensed grower and there's just not enough of them or they charge too much and the black market is taking up the slack. Like I said, the drug market is pretty much a perfected system and if the government thinks they can improve on it they've got their work cut out for them. The wheel doesn't have to be reinvented.

I don't know for sure the government is acting as the middle man, either...but the OP's article seems to indicate that it does.

As I pointed out in my first post: "Now, he has had staff refreshing the government supply website in the early hours to snap up scarce new stock as soon as it's available, and is considering restricting store hours. "

As far as whether your pot retailers are following the law or not, that sounds like another problem.
 
That's a sure fire way to fugg up any endeavor!

Don't think that's happening, just another example of over-regulation.
 
It must be tough to cultivate "Colombian Gold" in the tundra.

Maybe not. Long hours of daylight, a dry climate, pot might do really well up there.
 
I lived in Edmonton, Alberta for two years. It was the longest decade of my life.

Maybe I should have started smoking weed...
 
I lived in Edmonton, Alberta for two years. It was the longest decade of my life.

Maybe I should have started smoking weed...

Edmonton, a city with no character or soul.

Just pure, oil money fueled Urban sprawl.
 
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