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A month since cannabis legalization: the more things change, the more they stay the same

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A month since cannabis legalization: the more things change, the more they stay the same

Industry experts on the most surprising and “told-you-so” moments to date

By Anisha Dhiman

November 16, 2018

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Nov. 17 marks a month since recreational cannabis was legalized in Canada.

Nov. 17 marks a month since recreational cannabis was legalized in Canada. Experts from the industry share insights on what has been the most surprising and most predictable developments.

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Hilary Black, director of patient education and advocacy, Canopy Growth, and founder of BC Compassion Club

By selling everything out in the recreational market, some of my colleagues in other LPs have done a terrible job at preserving the supply required for their patients. While some LPs have done a great job, several others are completely sold out of flowers, and have very few of any other product available. I find that surprising and disappointing as we have a tremendous responsibility to not interrupt the healthcare of the patients we are taking care of.

Other than that, there were not a lot of surprises because we (Canopy) spent two years preparing for this—developing infrastructure, building greenhouses, working on our supply chain from seed to retail, etc.

I am also not surprised by how the country has shown us that it’s ready for legalization. The supply shortages that are happening are actually an illustration of the wild success that legalization is.

Dr. Jenna Valleriani, post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia

From a policy perspective, it was good to see the government propose pardons for possession under 30 grams as among the first steps on Oct. 17—although we haven’t heard much more on what that will look like. The feds also recently announced new teams that will review applications for different licence classes, which is encouraging to hear, especially for micro-cultivators, as this demonstrates how the federal government is continuing to adapt to the growing demand.

Just like when the MMPR (Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations) was enacted in 2013, it was a bumpy first year, and likely will be no different for non-medical access as well. But the demand is there, and while I don’t think we’ll see the legal market undermining the underground market anytime soon, it will get better and more consistent as time goes on.

Daniel Sax, founder and CEO of Sensi Properties

In many ways, legalization has been very anti-climactic—people have embraced the products at large, whether that’s through the online ordering system or lining up to purchase in retail outlets.

The shortage, on the other hand, is astounding, but predictable. It’s a little bit of a black eye on the industry, but perhaps it was a question of unrealistic expectations. People were upset that there weren’t enough physical stores, but the slow–roll-out is probably a realistic way to handle the scaling challenges.

Ashleigh Brown, community manager and patient liaison of Strainprint Technologies Ltd., and founder of SheCann

From a medical perspective, it was surprising to note how quickly people came out of the woodworks with their questions and curiosity around cannabis. It’s almost like legalization gave them the permission to do that.

The most predictable effect was that the world didn’t end, and also the high demand and subsequent shortage. If anything, the long line-ups are indicative of how the majority of Canadian felt about legalization.

John Prentice, president and CEO of Ample Organics

There was such fervour for retail locations leading up to legalization that I assumed there would be many more open by now. When it comes to massive supply shortage, it really came as no surprise and will likely take over a year to sort it out.

Alison Gordon, CEO of 48North Cannabis Corp.

It’s surprising how little has changed! For those of us in the industry, legalization was this big, exciting, looming date that we’ve been thinking about for a long time. On Oct. 17, there was a lot of excitement and media attention, but that has since dissipated. This is probably a good thing as it feels like cannabis has been normalized a bit. The situation in Ontario is unfortunate, as we don’t have brick-and-mortar retail. Consumers aren’t getting the full experience yet.

It isn’t surprising that the provinces were not fully ready with retail programs. This is a monumental task that will definitely take the different levels of government a while to sort out.

Pranav Sood, founder of Trellis

As we provide software to the supply chain side of the business, we experienced a different perspective, especially when it came to the surge in provincial sales retail, which was different when compared to the medical model.

We have been seeing high demand for our software—which is a seed-to-sale solution for extraction, cultivation, and cannabis companies of all sizes—from micro-business licences, which again didn’t exist under the medical market. We have seen a dramatic shift in the industry and, the scenario is starting to look a lot more like California.

Robyn Rabinovich, VP of business strategy for TerrAscend

The day came and passed, and the world is not any less well-off as a result. It’s not like we see individuals walking down the street with a bong or a blunt in hand. If one were to look at footage from Quebec and Nova Scotia, there are a whole variety of normal people showing up to participate in the legal market.

The industry expected certain issues when it came to supply chain management. Understanding that we had to wait for certain regulations to work out in regards to packaging, the time required to implement those changes as well as elements such as excise tax stickers—these were unpredictable developments that never existed that we had to deal with within a short period of time as we scaled up.

Jeanette Vandermarel, co-founder and president of Good & Green

As the only distributor in Ontario, with nearly unlimited resources, I am surprised how bad the execution has been from the Ontario Cannabis Store, especially since the supply shortage was predicted and not surprising to anyone in the industry.

Want to keep up to date on what’s happening in the world of cannabis? Subscribe to the Cannabis Post newsletter for weekly insights into the industry, what insiders will be talking about and content from across the Postmedia Network.

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