I live in Ontario, population around 14 million. Until recently, there were, count’em, 24 cannabis shops in the entire province, with five (!) of them in Toronto (population 3 million, and environs adding another 3 million). So, about one store per million people. Not surprising that cannabis growing companies are struggling to survive.
Recently, the cap on the number of cannabis shops was lifted. But damage has been done - inconvenience, limited selection (with no ‘historic’ strains available), and highish prices are hardly the way to gain clientele.
But, I post this today for other reasons.
The Ontario Cannabis Store (the provincial online dispensary) has made a big deal that edible products are now (finally) available. So I checked their site in eager anticipation. The results?
They have 1, ONE, edible available. Worse, other than being described as made from a “blend”, no other characteristics are given. And, this anticipated product, one that should have wide popular appeal (who wants to smoke or vape) sells for just under $8 yet contains a grand total of 2 mg THC. 2 mg! (You need a minimum of 5 mg to even feel a buzz, and many people take much much more).
Unbelievable.
(More unbelievable - during the time I proofed this post, they have apparently run out of stock. There are no more edibles available from the province’s largest cannabis retailer.)
And the government claims to be surprised about the persistence of the ‘black market’ for pot.
They should’ve studied Washington State, who did it right. The closest major town to me, Spokane, has a ton of pot shops. The product is better and cheaper than it was on the black market, by quite a bit. Some of these stores have a huge variety. Edibles typically come in 100mg bags and range from $20-30. Bud itself is cheap and the most cost effective form. I’m a lightweight so really, any form factor is cheap. All Washington needs to do is legalize the growing of it.
I work for an accounting creditation firm, and in a company-wide product strategy meeting today, one of the facilitators had a bullet list of new initiatives, and one of them was “Cannabis focus area.” It’s a major growth industry, so to speak.
By the end of the meeting, the organizers asked us to go to Mentimeter on our laptops and cell phones, and answer the question “What are you most excited about in 2020?” The answers appeared behind them on the large screen, cycling through all the responses. The audience laughed at the one I put in: “Sampling products in the Cannabis initiative.”
That edible price is waaayyyy too high. I can buy a 350mg brownie for $20 and a 1000mg brownie for $40. California really has screwed up the legal weed industry. Their goofy rules and regulations make prices way too high and make many popular kinds of weed products basically illegal.
Interesting about the edibles prices. I’m not as into them but we buy them for my wife. 5mg, once or twice a week is all she consumes so it is cost effective. I smoke flower which is definitely cheaper. We are both lightweights so a little bit goes a long way. Last time we were in the store, the budtender mentioned he needs to dose at least 500mg to feel anything. That’s basically an entire years worth for me. Only partaking a little, 1-2 times a week keeps our tolerance very low. Plus, we aren’t trying to get stoned to the bajesus.
What kind of weed products are basically illegal there?
It seems clear that the implementers of the new law don’t believe in it and are making it hard as possible for users. They aren’t even seriously trying and the black marketers must be ecstatic. Quebec is much the same as Ontario. I believe there are only three outlets in Montreal. If I had been getting stuff from an illegal agent before legalization, I would go right on doing it. In fact, it would be even easier now that possession is no longer a crime.
Actually, I would think that is surprising. I mean, that’s a small amount of pot shops for that population, right? One would think all of them are selling at capacity then, no? So, yes, that does surprise me quite a bit.
Not only is the price too high, they have put a cap on THC at 10mg in edibles for sale. I have some cookies with 260mg and they barely give me any notable effects.
Wow! This perfectly illustrates the huge difference in reaction to THC along with tolerance build-up. 10mg is perfect for me. 260 would have me out of mind. When I was young and partook much more often, I had a higher tolerance (I was still considered a light-weight).
Flowers, which I prefer, are still cheaper than I ever saw on the black-market, including back in the early 90s when I was buying that way.
Jaysus, when I make cookies I limit them to about 30-35mg per cookie and the rule is “One cookie, two cookie, three cookie, FLOOR.” Dunno what the fuck kinda bunk ass weed they’re using that a 260mg cookie doesn’t have you paralytic for a day or two.
California has a 100mg ceiling for all edibles. And the legal stuff is very expensive, as appears to be the Ontario edible price. At the same level of Canadian Dollars to THC, a 350 mg brownie would cost $1400…a 1000mg brownis would cost $4000.
Here is a Vice article commenting how overregulation has taken the wind out of the sales of legalization. Its cheaper to buy it from an illegal dealer.
I find the budtenders tolerance a little hard to believe. Here is a Reddit thread about eating a complete 1000mg brownie at one setting. Even veteran thc users admit that 125mg is too much to consume at a single time.
This is an excellent point. Someone needs to create a THC Quality testing system.
I have a friend who worked at Starbucks. They gave him half of a 350mg brownie…he ate it. About two hours later, as the high intensified, he had a breakdown crying. It didnt help that he was working. THC might not kill you (directly) but overdosing has some serious and uncomfortable effects.
The whole point to legalization is to take the product out of the black market and move those sales into the real world market. And in doing so, pick up the customers who have avoided the black market, and of course to reap the benefits of taxing these sales.
The price must undercut the previously black market. The availability must be easy and cheap. To charge too much and limit product just encourages the gray middle area between the black market and the legal market.
I live near a town of less than 10k people. At first everybody wanted to get into the game, and a few shops failed. Now things seem to have settled out with 6 legal outlets and a few apothecaries dealing in edibles, CBD ointments and other woo.
The market or the tax money people will figure it out in Ontario, eventually. Counties in the more conservative areas of Oregon initially decided that they would have no pot outlets in the county. “We’ll show them!” That lasted about a year until they saw neighboring counties bringing in millions in revenue. “We’ll show them”, quickly became “We are stupid” and most areas will now allow outlets, and the revenue that come with them.
CBD really isnt woo. If anyone has suffered from arthritic pain it helps. Without the damaging effects of NSAIDs on the kidneys and liver but at a much higher dollar cost.
They said the “cannabis growing companies” are struggling, not the stores. So even if the producers are producing enough for everybody, the sales outlets are so limited that they can’t sell what they have, with their potential customers going to the black market instead.
Ok, so you mean overproduction at the producers end and not enough legal retailer outlets to sell it to. That makes more sense, but I would think one would scale the production to what can legally be sold. But I can see that perhaps what they can sell is not enough to justify the costs of a business. I am surprised by that, but that I can grok.
I assume the market will expand as the stores become more numerous. As it is, I think there is only one store in Dupage County and the lines are probably nasty.
Ontario? I thought you were talking about Illinois. There are two whole pot shops south of Chicago. I live right by one of them. There was a day long line to wait in in early January. Now you can get through the line in two hours if you’re lucky. But the product is substandard, they’re always running out, prices are insane and on top of that Illinois wants another 25-30% for the privilege. Screw that. It’s probably still cheaper to take a road trip to Colorado, and I know it’s cheaper to buy it from my buddy in the trailer court.
Hell, they could have cut demand by a lot just by legalizing growing for personal use. Illinois is the only state with recreational marijuana that doesn’t allow you to grow your own. How legal can something be if you’re not allowed to grow it yourself?
Does Illinois think they have a monopoly? Were they alive any time in the past 50 years? Pot is ubiquitous and cheap. If the legal stuff isn’t, then the legal stuff will fail and the dealers will win. They legalized pot and still lost the drug war.
Dunno if it’s changed or not but WA was recreational with no allowances for growing your own without a license. People got pretty salty about that, especially after Oregon went rec with 4 plants per person allowed to grow.
I don’t know why a state would want to legalize something but at the same time make it so damned inconvenient for people to get it. States have been doing this with alcohol for years. I can go to Wal-Mart or Target and buy pretty much any consumer product in the world. I can even buy alcohol there so long as it is beer or wine.
But if I want liquor for some reason the state makes me go to a separate store all the way across town. And I had better hope that it is within certain hours or not before 1pm on Sunday. And the state is the only wholesaler of liquor so I get the same shitty selection everywhere I go. It makes no sense.
Don’t even get me started on Pennsylvania. We were in Pittsburgh and wanted a 12 pack of beer to take back to our room. No bar would sell it to us at anything other than full bar prices which we refused to pay. It would have been easier to get cocaine than beer.
It seems like they are doing the same thing with weed. If you want to make it legal then make it legal. Don’t just allow it in two whole stores where there is a two hour wait.
dollar cost.