Canada\u2019s licensed cannabis suppliers have been struggling to keep enough product in stock in the weeks since legalization hit in on Oct. 17. Now, Alberta\u2019s provincial government has decreed that retailers will no longer be able to order cannabis online in an effort to control supply.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 12, the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Authority (AGLC<\/a>) informed all retailers in the province that they will have to manually order their next shipment.\u00a0When cannabis went legal on Oct. 17, licensed retailers could place orders with the AGLC online \u2014 on a first-come, first-serve basis. But this contributed to what Canada\u2019s\u00a0Global News<\/a>\u00a0wryly called a \u201cchronic shortage\u201d in the province. Of course, it is worth noting the cannabis shortage is only for legal cannabis and the illicit market\u00a0is still thriving<\/a>\u00a0in Canada.<\/p>\n Joshua Vera of the Elevate Cannabis outlet in Edmonton was pictured in the Global News despondently hanging a sign on the door of his business reading \u201cSORRY, WE\u2019RE OUT OF STOCK.\u201d Vera described his stressful experience of the past weeks: \u201cYou\u2019re not sleeping much. When something was uploaded to the system, it was a matter of literally seconds before it was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n The Global News reported that stock was similarly exhausted or rapidly dwindling at most retailers in the Edmonton area (where Alberta\u2019s dispensaries\u00a0are clustered<\/a>). Meanwhile, just a few were very well-stocked \u2014 presumably, those most adept at gaming the online system. The\u00a0Fire and Flower<\/a>\u00a0retailer indicated it had \u201clots\u201d of stock at all of its outlets.<\/p>\n AGLC\u2019s Riaz Nejad said, \u201cWe\u2019re not aware of any bots being used, we\u2019re just aware of people being online 24\/7 basically, trying to order product. And some were successful in achieving that and others were unsuccessful in achieving that.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the new policy, each Monday, retailers will be given 24 hours to manually fill out an order form. The AGLC then divide what product it has among them.<\/p>\n \u201cI think this fair allocation of the inventory will ensure every retailer gets a fair shot at some product instead of some maybe getting more and some getting none,\u201d Nejad said.<\/p>\n The cannabis shortages have plagued provinces from British Columbia to the Maritimes. The\u00a0Canadian Press<\/a>\u00a0reports that the province of New Brunswick was forced to temporarily close more than half its stores, while the Quebec Cannabis Corporation (or\u00a0Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Qu\u00e9b\u00e9coise du Cannabis<\/a>) has restricted its store opening hours to four days a week. Labrador\u2019s only cannabis outlet was forced to temporarily close its doors after being without any product for nearly two weeks.<\/p>\n Khurram Malik, CEO of Toronto-based\u00a0Biome Grow Inc<\/a>, said the shortages are in part due to strict regulations imposed by\u00a0Health Canada<\/a>\u00a0on the country\u2019s 132 Licensed Producers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rules here are so difficult to grow cannabis\u2026 that if you\u2019re a new license holder and you\u2019ve never done this before, it\u2019s going to take you a year, year-and-a-half, or two years to get any decent, consistent quality product out the door in any predictable volumes,\u201d said Malik.<\/p>\n Simple bureaucratic ineptitude also seems to be playing a role here.\u00a0Global News<\/a>\u00a0reports that Ontario\u2019s official\u00a0Ombudsman<\/a>\u00a0has received more than 1,000 complaints about the province\u2019s online cannabis store since it opened earlier this month. Complaints have concerned delayed deliveries, poor communication with customers and billing problems. The\u00a0Ontario Cannabis Store<\/a>\u00a0warned on its website last week that delivery times for orders may be longer than expected due to \u201cunbelievably high demand\u201d and a\u00a0labor action at Canada Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n Retail stores are not expected to open in Ontario until April, with the provincial government to start reviewing license applications next month. In a bid to stop the emergence of vertical monopolies, provincial authorities just announced that retail licenses will not be issued to a company more than 9.9 percent owned by one or more Licensed Producers.<\/p>\n Industry voices have also protested this move as burdensome. The executive director of the\u00a0Cannabis Council of Canada<\/a>, Allan Rewak, told the\u00a0Canadian Press<\/a>\u00a0he is \u201cdisappointed,\u201d as some LPs who have invested in retail chains may be prevented from entering the Ontario market.<\/p>\n Another question concerning control of the industry has emerged in Saskatchewan, where authorities are demanding the closure of a cannabis retail outlet operating on an indigenous reserve without provincial authorization. Saskatchewan Justice Minister Don Morgan was quoted by the\u00a0Canadian Broadcasting Corp<\/a>: \u201cIt would be our position that somebody setting one up without a provincial license would not be legal, would not be authorized. I would urge them to stop going ahead with it.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0Muscowpetung First Nation<\/a>, some 70 kilometers northeast of Regina, passed its own cannabis law by popular vote on Nov. 12 \u2014 with 86 percent voting in favor. The\u00a0Mino-Maskihki Cannabis Dispensary<\/a>\u00a0opened the next day. Whether it remains open may help determine what Canada\u2019s new cannabis order will look like, and establish the degree to which First Nations have sovereign power in the matter. With several of Canada\u2019s\u00a0First Nations looking to legal cannabis<\/a>\u00a0for economic development, the case will be closely watched.<\/p>\n A letter from Muscowpetung chief Anthony Cappo calling on band members to vote in favor of the law stated that \u201cas a sovereign treaty nation, Muscowpetung has the authority to regulate the use and sale of Cannabis\/Hemp within our Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/b>\u00a0what should Canada do to avoid legal cannabis shortages?<\/p>\n The post Canadian Cannabis Shortages Spark Post-Legalization Reckoning<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s licensed cannabis suppliers have been struggling to keep enough product in stock in the weeks since legalization hit in on Oct. 17. Now, Alberta\u2019s provincial government has decreed that retailers will no longer be able to order cannabis online in an effort to control supply. On Nov. 12, theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[822,34,6162,50,6525,170,2667,846,687,828,362,1248,3643],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30698,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30697\/revisions\/30698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Canada Dry: Cannabis Shortages Stretch Across Canada<\/h4>\n
Outages in Ontario<\/h4>\n
Saskatchewan Showdown with First Nations<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Canadian Cannabis Shortages Spark Post-Legalization Reckoning<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"