National Post (National Edition)
Pot sales quickly clean out supplies
TORONTO • Marijuana retailers were running low or were cleaned out completely by the end of the second day of legal sales, and the shortfall could last for months.
Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries said Thursday it is expecting product shortages in both brick-and-mortar and online stores could last “up to at least six months.”
“Every province — not just Manitoba — is receiving substantially less cannabis than originally requested . ... Retailers in Manitoba will be receiving staggered shipments over the next few weeks (some daily) in an effort to meet their requests,” said a spokeswoman for the Manitoba crown corporation.
Meanwhile, Quebec Cannabis Corp. said Thursday that some items are unavailable on its website and it expects further product shortages — particularly oil, capsules, atomizers and pre-rolled joints.
Alberta and Prince Edward Island also said certain products have sold out online, and Nova Scotia said it ran out of certain strains.
Cannabis industry players and watchers had warned that there would be shortages amid supply chain issues, but the actual appetite of Canadian consumers for legal pot was unclear until Wednesday.
On the first day of legalization in Canada, Quebec’s crown cannabis corporation had recorded more than 12,500 in-store transactions and 30,000 online orders, which “far exceeds” its expectations.
The Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation said it conducted 12,810 transactions totalling more than $660,000, of which almost $47,000 were online. In P.E.I., first-day sales exceeded $152,000 after tax, nearly $21,000 of which was online.
In Alberta, where private retailers handle in-store sales, the government-run website processed 8,300 orders as of 3:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday, worth approximately $730,000, a spokeswoman for the province’s gaming, liquor and cannabis commission.
The online-only Ontario Cannabis Store would not release numbers, but spokesman Daffyd Roderick said “the response to cannabis legalization has resulted in a high volume of orders.” Online delivery will now take as long as five days, as opposed to the earlier timeline of one to three days, he added.
Meanwhile, in B.C. where there is only one legal store, RCMP raided two illicit marijuana dispensaries on Vancouver Island on Wednesday.
An RCMP statement says officers seized an undisclosed amount of cannabis from both locations and issued violation tickets for the unlawful sale of marijuana.
Under regulations that came into effect Wednesday, cannabis is to be sold exclusively at government-run stores, licensed private retailers and the B.C. government’s online store.
However, the province only has one licensed location at this point, a government-run store in Kamloops in B.C.’S Interior. Consumers going to British Columbia’s website on Wednesday were told that several strains of marijuana were sold out and B.C.’S only retail location in Kamloops ran out of one variety of dried cannabis.
The celebratory mood that marked the legalization lost a bit of its high for some consumers who found themselves with hefty fines for allegedly violating laws around pot use.
Hours after people lined up outside Newfoundland cannabis stores to buy the first legal bud in Canada, police in St. John’s say they ticketed a man accused of having more than 30 grams of weed in a public place without a licence.
In Nova Scotia, RCMP said they issued a $295 fine after officers spotted an open bag of government-supplied cannabis within the driver’s reach after he was pulled over for having expired plates at 2:30 a.m. Thursday in Dartmouth. “It was right in the centre console,” said Cpl. Dal Hutchinson.
The Ontario Provincial Police took to Twitter early Wednesday to post a photo of a $215 ticket given to someone who allegedly had a baggy of marijuana in their car, urging people not to indulge while in a vehicle.