Why legal cannabis growers can’t compete with the black market — yet
Federally licensed production is increasing at a breakneck pace and that adequate legal supplies should be available countrywide by early next year
Friday, February 1, 2019
Despite the persistent media buzz, there are no cannabis supply shortages in Canada, pot industry expert Michael Armstrong explains. “There’s all kinds of cannabis in Canada,” says Armstrong, “It’s the legal cannabis that we’re short of.” And to successfully compete with a stocked and still-thriving illegal market, the country’s licensed cannabis producers must — among a series of moves — ramp up their crop outputs exponentially, offer cheaper, more varied strains and get them into a vastly increased number of stores. “This is not a new industry, there is an existing industry,” says Armstrong, who analyzed new Health Canada data on the country’s marijuana market for a recent article. “What we have is this new legal version that has to compete with it.”
