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Why is Canada running out of marijuana?
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.
"While there was product to order we were very comfortably getting a large amount of it," says Burns, the CEO of Alcanna, a company that owns a chain of private liquor stores in Canada and the US and, now, cannabis stores in the province of Alberta. "But obviously, when there's literally none there, it doesn't matter how big you are, there's just none there. If the government warehouse is empty, it's empty. There's nothing you can do."
[...] A report released in early October by the CD Howe Institute, a Toronto-based economic think tank, estimates that the current legal supply will meet about 30% to 60% of total demand in the first months of legalisation. But people in the industry say the scarcity is worse than expected. "Everybody knew this was going to happen," says Burns. "Probably, frankly, not this quick and this starkly."
Patrick Wallace, owner of Waldo 420 in Medicine Hat, Alberta, predicts it will be a year to 18 months before supply matches demand. "We're riding on our initial investment of stock from a few weeks back," he says. "So we're OK now but it's not sustainable."
Previously: Canada Becomes the Second Nation to Legalize Cannabis
Peter Thiel's Cannabis Company Was Briefly Worth More Than Twitter
Hostage to NAFTA? Canada Signs on to War on Drugs Despite Recent Cannabis Legalization
Cannabis Becomes Legal in Canada
(Score: 3, Funny) by stretch611 on Friday November 16 2018, @04:19PM (5 children)
Please, Please, will somebody please think of the children?
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 16 2018, @05:06PM (3 children)
Evul Drug Dealer: "..."
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(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Friday November 16 2018, @08:37PM (2 children)
Actually, I was trying to poke fun at there being a shortage... :)
Whenever something bad happens, think of all the children is usually an overused expression.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 16 2018, @09:22PM (1 child)
Ya I heard of it. I was transmuting the joke to a higher plane.
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(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Friday November 16 2018, @10:57PM
We'll let me be the first to admit... WHOOOSH!!!
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday November 18 2018, @06:08AM
I know that you're trying to make a joke, but that is one of the big arguments for legalization, kids don't have as much access to legal pot then illegal. This shortage means more black market pot and the black marketer rarely asks for ID and many will happily hang around schools to make a sale, especially the to their fellow kids.
Of course the right wing feels the opposite, legalization means more access for kids and it should never happen.