Edible pot still months away, producers say
Sellers face new licensing hurdle as next legalization phase looms
Alberta’s cannabis industry is chewing on how to manage an expanding array of weed-based products as the second wave of cannabis legalization approaches, adding edibles to the list of products consumers can buy to get high.
Though edibles, alongside topicals and cannabis extracts, will be legal on Thursday — exactly one year after Canada first legalized weed on Oct. 17, 2018 — Albertans won’t be able to buy the newly legal products themselves until at least mid-december.
The gap in time between legalization and sales is due to a Health Canada requirement that producers reapply for licences on Thursday, a process that will take at least 60 days to approve. But as consumer excitement for the new products grows, some retailers are frustrated by the delay.
“Everyone’s getting hyped up on edibles, but we’re not going to be able to deliver on them for a couple months,” said Ryan Seeras, chief marketing officer of NUMO Cannabis, which has a store on Alberta Avenue.
Seeras doesn’t expect to see products on his store shelves until January or February.
But he’s seen a lot of demand for alternative methods of cannabis consumption, particularly among people who aren’t comfortable with smoking the product. The variety of options will provide a better entry point, but Seeras said a lot of uncertainty remains.
“We don’t know what we’re going to be selling, how much we’re going to be selling it for, how we’re going to be marketing it, how customers are going to react to it. Obviously, it’s super frustrating,” he said, adding that the benefit of having one year in the industry is helping mitigate some of the issues.
For producers like Edmonton’s Aurora Cannabis, Thursday has been a date circled on the calendar for months.
Aurora plans to get the new products to market as soon as possible, meaning the company is ready to apply for relicensing on Thursday.
One major challenge for producers has been abiding by Health Canada regulations, which include a requirement that products cannot be “appealing to young people.” That requirement likely precludes some products that often spring to mind when thinking about edibles, including gummy bears.
“The regulations are not extremely precise, but I think any licensed producer in Canada knows what they’re talking about. There will be no gummy bears, there will be no gummy worms, for example,” Aurora chief corporate officer Cam Battley said.
For Aurora, new products under the second wave of legalization will include vapes, chocolates, mints and other gummies. Battley declined to elaborate on specific products, saying he wants to maintain a competitive advantage.
Even some businesses outside of the cannabis industry are trying to capitalize on edibles legalization. Calgary’s Bernard Callebaut has spent the past two years crafting a plan to expand his business by selling weed-infused chocolate, a process the veteran chocolatier said presents a unique challenge.
“Chocolate is a medium that is quite well suited for cannabis oil, since chocolate is an oil-based product. So you can do the proportions quite precisely,” Callebaut said. “But it’s key in the edibles production that the customer buys exactly what you claim you’re selling.”
While Callebaut said he won’t be ready for Thursday’s legalization date, he hopes to move into the edibles market in the coming months.
“We’re doing it step by step because we want to do it right and that takes time,” he said.
The most challenging regulation for Callebaut has been the requirement for edibles production to take place in an entirely different facility from the production of other items. He plans to find a new building where he can craft his weed-infused chocolate.
That regulation has already toppled one potential budding Alberta edibles pivot.
Shortly after initial legalization, at Mcbrides Bakery in Medicine Hat, co-owner Brendan Hillson held some after-hours weed-baking sessions at the bakery. After a stern call from the store’s health inspector, Hillson said, the bakery decided to stop hosting edibles bake nights and now has no plans to expand into the wider edibles industry.
For Aurora and Battley, one hope, as different forms of weed become legal, is that the new methods of consumption will help further cut down on illegal sales.
“These allow us to provide the same breadth of product forms as the black market,” Battley said.
Chocolate is a medium that is quite well suited for cannabis oil, since chocolate is an oil-based product. So you can do the proportions quite precisely.