Marijuana

Cannabis retailers and producers hope an upcoming move by Ontario’s pot distributor to lower its price markups will help an industry still struggling to compete with the illicit market.

Ontario Cannabis Store, the Crown agency that has a monopoly on legal distribution in the province, is changing its pricing structure starting in September. The changes will reduce most wholesale markups that OCS imposes on cannabis products it sells to retailers, lowering its profit margin.

What remains to be seen is the impact the reduction will have on prices consumers pay for pot or on the bottom line of cannabis companies.

Granted the “private sector” can out compete the government system but I wonder if the total demand for pot was over estimated?

According to MJ Biz Daily, despite business failures and consolidation efforts, Canada’s unsold cannabis stockpile grew in the final quarter 2022. This alarming trend indicates that companies may face challenges due to declining prices and margins.

The latest data from Health Canada reveals that the combined inventory of packaged and unpackaged dried cannabis reached a record-breaking 1.47 billion grams (3.2 million pounds) by December 2022. This figure includes unsold stockpiles from licensed producers, wholesalers, and retailers, highlighting the significant amount of cannabis that remains unsold in Canada.

As many as 30 percent of schizophrenia cases among young men may be linked to heavy marijuana use, according to a new study of more than six million people in Denmark.

The study, published this month in Psychological Medicine, also found the proportion of new schizophrenia cases linked to cannabis use disorder has risen consistently since the 1970s, likely due to the increasing potency of the drug that many view as harmless.

This is not a lone study, just one of a growing number raising the alarm.

Young men with a serious cannabis addiction are at increased risk of developing schizophrenia, a new study suggests.

Experts estimate that nearly one third of cases of schizophrenia in 21 to 30-year-olds were triggered by cannabis use disorder.

Cannabis use disorder is thought to impact around 1 in 200 people, and relates to problematic cannabis use where people cannot control their intake and suffer withdrawal symptoms if they stop taking the drug.

Marijuana use has exploded across the US since a wave of legalizations kicked off a decade ago, but some parents believe the super-strength strains of today are driving children to suicide.

Figures show found the number of Americans who have marijuana in their system when they try to kill themselves is growing at an alarming 17 percent per year – and the trend is being fueled by a rise in young people.

Sonia Jimenez, from Houston, Texas, lost her son Josh, 22, to suicide in December 2021, which she believes was caused by chronic cannabis use.

Increasing numbers of cannabis retailers in Alberta are getting out of the business, a testament to the many obstacles faced by the fledgling industry, say those involved in it.

Last year, 68 retailers either cancelled their licence or chose not to renew it — far more than the 19 recorded in 2021, according to Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC).

This seems to be the case in every province.

OTTAWA — Onerous taxes and regulatory fees have made Canada’s legal cannabis sector unsustainable, industry representatives said Wednesday as they urged the Liberal government to make changes in the upcoming federal budget.

“Most of our most of our top line goes right to the government and it’s making it uneconomic for businesses to continue,” said Margaret Brodie, acting CEO of Rubicon Organics, at a press conference on Parliament Hill organized by the Cannabis Council of Canada, which represents licensed producers and processors.

Canopy Growth Corp. will lay off 800 workers as part of a transformation plan that will see the company close its hallmark 1 Hershey facility and consolidate some of its cultivation operations.

The Smiths Falls, Ont. cannabis company said Thursday that the layoff will impact 35 per cent of its workforce and take place over the next several months.

From Okies to Smokies?

California lawmakers are calling for a sweeping investigation into corruption in the state’s cannabis industry, legislative hearings on the exploitation of farmworkers and new laws to thwart labor trafficking in response to revelations of rampant abuses and worker deaths in a multibillion-dollar market that has become increasingly unmanageable.

Imagine that, corruption in California.

In New York and elsewhere, the illegal pot market is crowding out the legal one

In December 2022, the first licensed sellers of marijuana in New York State opened their doors. That might surprise New Yorkers who saw, to their delight or dismay, hundreds of smoke shops begin selling weed out of neighborhood storefronts last year. These unlicensed, “gray-market” operations may strangle the Empire State’s legal marijuana industry in its crib, thwarting politicians’ ambitions of advancing racial equity via drug legalization.

A cannabis glut in several states has depressed prices for legal pot, pushing small businesses into turmoil.

It wasn’t always Josh Keats’s job to drive the tractor.

The co-founder of Henry’s Original once had a small crew to farm his 7-plus acres of cannabis from his base in Northern California’s Emerald Triangle. But on this fall day, it’s Keats operating the heavy machinery, trundling down rows of rich green stalks, because he had to let go two-thirds of his staff to stay afloat.

Yet, he’s grateful. Other weed growers, processors and retailers have had to make more painful cuts — or have folded altogether. “We are witnessing massive insolvency,” Keats said, “especially on the West Coast.”

The federal government’s ongoing review of the Cannabis Act emphasizes protecting public health — but experts and industry insiders say it also has to find a way to boost the legal marijuana industry and help it compete with the illicit market.

The act, which legalized recreational marijuana in Canada in 2018, came with a requirement that the federal government review it three years after it became law.

Currently, approximately 1,500 cannabis stores are open or approved in Ontario, 450 in British Columbia and 760 in Alberta (these being the three most populous provinces that have privatized cannabis retail operations). In most cities, one might find two or more cannabis stores on the same block, at the same intersection or within the same plaza.

People often express confusion about, or even resentment toward, this concentration of cannabis stores, and wonder how any of them could make money, or why anybody would want to open one, or how this could have come about.