The big day has come and gone for the marijuana industry. Back on Oct. 17, 2018, Canada became only the second country in the world other than Uruguay, and the first industrialized nation, to legalize recreational cannabis. Waving the green flag on adult-use pot is widely expected to be a game changer for the legal pot industry, eventually generating billions of dollars in added annual sales.
Unfortunately, the wait for those billions of dollars in sales could wind up taking a lot longer than most folks initially expected…
Cannabis shortages wreak havoc in Canada
Although demand roared out of the gate for recreational marijuana in all provinces and territories, shortages were quick to hit in a number of provinces. Select shops in Manitoba ran out of product in mere hours, whereas online ordering in Quebec has been compromised by many products being out of stock. Manitoba, in particular, wasn’t all that confident that it’d have its supply shortage resolved anytime soon, either.
Meanwhile, other provinces, such as Alberta and British Columbia, may have the product at the ready but are dealing with the slow and arduous process of getting dispensaries licensed and in operation. Combined, Alberta and British Columbia have just 18 retail locations in operation right now, which is a drop in the bucket given the adult population of each region.
These supply hiccups, which most pundits could foresee, save for the Canadian regulators themselves, are almost certainly going to impact the sales potential for recreational weed in 2018. In fact, one investment firm, GMP Securities, has already begun slashing forecasts for a number of marijuana stocks…
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