Labrador, Newfoundland is nowhere near the Quebec border.
Unfortunately this is typical of any government run program. To be far it was pushed out quickly but we've seen the same thing with a new government payroll system and information management initiative. Poor project management with terrible logistical planning. Over budget. Not enough supply. Etc. Etc.
3
Of all of the problems to have, this is a nice one, a shortage of legal weed.
Maybe next we'll have a problem with an oversupply of healthcare?
21
theres no shortage, maybe in the legal side of things but they don't have the stock as licensed producers are nowhere near being able to fulfill their orders to medical, recreational and to many of their export endeavors which happen to be the real priority for many as they return the highest margins of profit. The retailers are the ones who should be most mad, the LPs are shorting them and making their business be competed against by Jerry from down the block. Look at the tiny amount of licenses given. In CO alone there's 10 times the licensees and we in Canada KNEW it would require a tremendous amount of cannabis to be grown. This is all artificial scarcity right now.
3
Growing my own, I never have to worry about this problem.
13
“Who would’ve thought that weed would be this popular?”
Canadian humour at its best.
38
Since 2017 l have been a investor in several Canadian marijuana companies. My investment so far has returned a very nice profit. I do not believe the shortage will last too long. There are dozens of marijuana companies, that is why I believe the shortage will be short lived. On the other hand, the shortage is an indicator (to me) that my investment will continue to grow in value.
14
As the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers said.
"Weed will get you through times of no money better than money will get though times of no weed ."
Or something like that.
It is a shame that the new NAFTA did not address this wonderful opportunity for Humboldt County and Colorado growers,
19
Isn't the primary goal to kill illegal trade and tax legal trade?
Canada should enact a temporary amnesty and encourage illegal growers to sell to legal outlets right away. The momentum produced by this short term measure would accelerate the move from illegal to legal trade.
Take a bad situation and make it a golden opportunity, Canada.
17
In a few months this will be solved.
8
Back in the day when things would run dry, we'd just grab a truck and run to Mexico...
13
I think that is an option now. Mexico is going green.
4
There are so many things that are funny about the headline and some of the quotes.
To a point, this is a problem in supply and demand that can be resolved fairly soon. It's a good kind of problem for the suppliers to have.
7
There are bigger problems in the world, and in a few months, this shortage will go away.
14
The transition from prohibition in didn't happen completely smoothly, but who still goes to bootleggers now.
There is a massive profit motive to meet demand, so it will happen sooner rather than later.
9
"Demand pricing," just like Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, got it, who would have guessed? Scarcity marketing is at work.
"We need more weed!" Take that to the bank!
7
There seems to be plenty of it here. If only it could migrate north. . .
15
Yes! Here in OR we have the opposite problem. Too much supply and that is driving prices down.
7
Our enlightened brothers and sisters in the north have shown America the correct direction on this issue. The government will have a huge new revenue stream that is ALWAYS needed. The black market will pick up the slack for now, and the government growers will ramp up production.
This change in Canadian laws will further prove the total idiocy and cruelty of 100 years of lies in America regarding pot. Millions of people have been wrongly incriminated, jailed, and had property seized etc. etc. - all for a mild drug infinitely safer than the legal hard drug alcohol.
Thank you Canada!!!
53
May we be of assistance?
34
@Marc
Nope! International trade is under the fed's purview, where weed is still very much illegal. Even states that have legalized recreational weed can't just import/export it.
3
Oregon first please. We have too much of it and not enough buyers.
5
@Erica M., Psst! MA needs weed.
6
This is such a hyperbolic, confused article, it appears to have been written only as click bait. Canada is trying to change an infinitely long period of no legal marijuana, and surprise, it is so popular that they are short on supply. Instead of pointing out that this always happens when supply chain changes take place, the author hyperventilates about how some consumers are going back to black market dealers. Longer term issues like how price for legal sources compares to black market after stability are much more interesting.
26
Did not Nevada run dry a couple or few days after recreational cannabis was legalized? And had to import more from CA? There are a lot more people out there facilitating and medicating than is known of. Some 'year', maybe MA will allow shops to open. It's been TWO YEARS since voters passed recreational (6! years for medical) yet there is still NOT any place to go and buy it. Big medical industry here and their rules dominate this state.
Give the people what they need and want. Free up the weed!
25
@MS
They wanted to import from CA. However, if I recall correctly, interstate trade is within the federal government's jurisdiction. Since weed is still illegal at the federal level, shipping it interstate is not possible to do legally. I believe our erstwhile (former!) Attorney General made some threats in that vein.
12
“Good people don’t use marijuana”.....Jeff Sessions, US Attorney General offering his 1950's view of reality two years ago.
"Free-DUMB !"
America's right-wing keeps its head firmly planted inside its own rear-end.
54
@Socrates
Er... as of a very short time ago, Jeff Sessions doesn't live here any more.
Nice observation about the right-wing head plant... it explains so much about their view of the world.
6
Are the retailers not allowed to set their own prices to adjust to the low supply?
2
@David
No. Pricing structures are mandated by the by the provincial governments.
This is done in part to keep prices low enough to help combat the black market.
18
@Davidnooooo, are you kidding, this is Canada, why would you want open competition when you can have government monopolyand gouge all for eternity?
And note the producers and government are now making excuses after spending more than a year assuringeveryone they were ready to go and it was going to be great.
It’s just one more piece of evidence that now constitures a mountain. That politicians don’t have a clue how to run a successful business, at least not in Canada. They can’teven get it rightwhen they have a monopoly and set all the rules. These are ‘teething pains’ are more than that. They reflect basic government incompetence.
3
Money taken from a black market run by organized crime, regulated and distributed in the same manner that alcohol is. We led the Western world on marriage equality and we'll be glad to lead on this file as well.
38
Canadians are capitalists too. They'll figure it out quickly.
16
The supply is inadequate because the regulatory process for licensing to grow the stuff is overly restrictive and demanding and hopelessly bogged down. Illegal pot remains more available and less expensive, so lllegal production is probably as lucrative as ever, and is likely to continue because anyone with a prior drug conviction cannot get a licence to produce. Cannabis companies are a stock market bubble. The regulation is directed at preventing access by youth, but theb stuff will be everywhere once the roll out is complete, it will be in the home, and in the garden, and in the streets, it will be as available to any 13-17 year old as cigarettes were in the old days. It is nonsense.
4
In Oregon when we legalized it they were giving out business licenses left and right that now there seems to be a green store on every other corner. Problem with that is there is so competition out there and supply that it drove down the price of weed. Now people who put their life savings into starting these businesses can't pay their bills.
1
What can you say? Planning skills are the first things to go...
16
Well I'm not surprised at all.
Of course the federal and provincial governments underestimated--neither of them truly knows what's going on on-the-ground so to speak.
They spent a lot of time trying to pacify those who want a stranglehold on it and even that they screwed up. The online shops are no contest to the illegal online shops.
If they were smart, they'd partner with the existing illegal online vendors and learn.
The feds have no idea what a cash cow they have on their hands.
5
A booming market, pent-up consumer demand for regulated products, tax dollars ready to flow into government coffers to...what is taking the US so long to get with the program?!
63
@Peter The answer to your question is blindingly obvious to anyone paying attention: The majority in the US wants to be able to lock up black people, Hispanic people, hippie types, and other "undesirables". For more information on this, I suggest reading Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow".
20
One of the most explicit promises of a legal market was vastly lower prices. But politicians got greedy, surprise, surprise, and oversold themselves on the take. I can get every product from the black market and prices are dropping. Pot should be $40/oz just like in 1978.
8
Todays pot is not the same from 1978 ;) But yes prices should drop.
12
@Jake News
Hawaiian pot, in 1978, was never $40 an ounce. Check your back issues of High Times; more like $150-$170 an ounce.
Back around 1977, I rolled 17 pin joints and slipped them into a Tic Tac dispenser. Buddy asked for a joint and I gave him one. On Monday, he apologized for thinking me miserly, since that one joint got him, his wife, and the landlady truly high.