Supply shortages hamper marijuana marketplace

The name of the store is High North, but it might as well be named High and Dry because for all but about four hours of the first two weeks since marijuana was legalized in Canada, there was no pot to sell.

Trevor Tobin, one of the owners of the Labrador City shop in Newfoundland and Labrador, said they went 10 straight days without supply.

“The producers keep saying there will be some bumps in the road, but right now it’s not a bump in the road. It’s a big pothole,” he said.

His mother, Brenda Tobin, is a part-owner and said that after she tells customers there’s nothing to buy, “a lot of them are saying, ‘Oh, well. I guess it’s back to the black market.”’

Legalization arrived Oct. 17, and Canada became the world’s largest national marketplace for so-called recreational marijuana. But for now, it’s a superlative in name only.

The first weeks have felt more like a soft opening with few retail outlets operating and rampant supply shortages.

It’s not because Canada can’t produce enough cannabis products – licensing those producers has been slow, and the federal government is taking steps to speed up the process.

The provinces are handling the sales and most of the regulations. Reports from around the country are similarly discouraging when it comes to supply.

Quebec closed its government-run shops for three days this week because of a lack of pot and will continue to keep them shut Mondays through Wednesdays until availability is stabilized. Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries said it expects product shortages in both brick-and-mortar and online stores could last six months.

Ontario won’t have any stores open until April at the earliest as the new Conservative government writes regulations. Meantime, police have shut down at least 11 illegal dispensaries in the province.

Ontario residents who want to make legal purchases are flooding the online government store.

At least 150,000 orders arrived in the first week, more than all other provinces combined, and the store can’t keep up.

Contributing to the delivery problem is a strike by workers at Canada Post, the nation’s postal service that handles online marijuana orders that are legal countrywide.

British Columbia still has just one retail store.