Cannabis IQ
 

The price gap between legal and illegal weed in Canada is growing, according to Statistics Canada, as the rollout of recreational cannabis across the country continues to face supply issues and other logistical hurdles.

StatCan reported this week that the price for illegal marijuana has fallen from roughly $6.23 per gram at the beginning of the year to $5.93 a gram by the end of June. In that same time, legal cannabis has risen from $10.21 per gram to $10.65 and the gap between the two markets is now almost $5 a gram.

Canada legalized recreational cannabis last October, but legal producers have been unable to meet the surge in demand and some provinces — namely Ontario — have struggled to get product to customers.

Ontario’s online marijuana store was the subject of more than 2,400 complaints to the provincial ombudsman and was the single most complained about government organization of the past fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the gap between illegal and legal weed continues to widen. In the first quarter of 2019, the gap was just $3.62 a gram, according to the data agency.

The latest figures from StatCan were based on 572 voluntary responses from users the agency deemed credible. The number of respondents who said they bought from illegal sources rose to 59 per cent in the second quarter of 2019, up from 55 per cent in the first quarter.

And cost seems to be the highest priority for users.

“The share of respondents who reported purchasing illegally due to ‘legal cannabis being too expensive’ rose from 27 per cent in the first quarter of 2019, to 34 per cent in the second quarter,” the report said.

FULL STORY: Canada’s legal pot market is gaining strength, but still has far to go

A cannabis worker displays fresh cannabis plants that have been trimmed for market at Loving Kindness Farms in Gardena, Calif., April 4, 2019. (AP)

In brief:

– CannTrust, a medical cannabis producer, halted all sales and shipments of its product after Health Canada found the company was growing pot in five unlicenced rooms. The health agency said Monday it discovered that CannTrust was growing weed at its Ontario greenhouse in rooms that had not yet been approved, and that employees provided “false and misleading information” to inspectors.

– In the fallout from the CannTrust investigation, a Danish company — Stenocare — has quarantined some of the company’s medical pot products. The company warned of possible shortages in Denmark as a result.

– The RCMP in B.C. seized nearly 1,200 kilograms of dried cannabis and arrested six people for allegedly exporting pot grown by medically licenced producers in Canada to Europe.

– Bruce Linton, the former co-CEO of Canopy Growth Corp., who helped pioneer Canada’s marijuana industry, could be headed stateside. Linton, who was fired last week, has a non-compete agreement in Canada, but Bloomberg is speculating he could jump to an American pot company.

This April 16, 2018, file photo shows the Essence cannabis dispensary in Las Vegas. (AP)

U.S news:

– The U.S. government is planning to grow the largest crop of research marijuana in five years — more than 2,000 kilograms this year at the University of Mississippi. The U.S. government is the only source of pot for nearly all research.

– The U.S. Coast Guard released video this week of a dramatic seizure. Officers boarded a semi-submarine carrying 17,690 kilograms of cocaine and 423 kilograms of marijuana.

– A new study suggests legalizing recreational marijuana in some U.S. states may have slightly reduced teens’ odds of using pot. The research, which analyzed national youth health and behaviour surveys from 1993 through 2017, found that while there was no change linked with medical marijuana legislation, the odds of teen use declined almost 10 per cent after recreational pot laws were enacted.

Do you have questions about legalization? You can ask them here.

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