This week will end with Good Friday, Passover and the holiday that truly brings people together, 4/20…
But in Vancouver, the 4/20 party is getting silenced before it even begins. The Park Board in Vancouver is going to consider whether or not to allow Cypress Hill to perform on Saturday…
Retail Cannabis
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is still gunning to be the hero of the cannabis industry. After his election last year, he scrapped the previous government’s plans for an LCBO-type model for cannabis in Ontario. Which earned him cheers. Quickly followed by a lottery for only 25 stores. Which earned him jeers. With those first chunk of stores opening April 1st, the province has now laid out a plan for the next chunk of private retail licenses, as well as a process to pre-qualify applicants. Cheers abound!
One company that has been cheering Doug Ford’s approach to private cannabis retail is The Hunny Pot on Queen Street West in Toronto. BofC paid Hunny Gawri a visit this week to see the shop and for a special episode of BofC Live.
Speaking of the Province of Ontario – the Ontario Cannabis Store – the only legal place to buy cannabis in Ontario from October 17th through April 1st – is expected to lose $25 million in its first year of operation…
Also speaking of cannabis retail sales, numbers don’t look great so far in Canada. So much so that it caught the notice of the Wall Street Journal.
Also (also!) speaking of cannabis retail sales, the average price on the legal market is 17 percent higher than the illegal market – according to number released last week by Health Canada.
And with retail shops opening up across the country, Health Canada has received 117 complaints about cannabis company advertising and marketing. (Speculation in the canna-Twitter-sphere about how many of those 117 were competitors blowing the whistle on each other…)
With the tight restrictions on advertising/marketing AND the limited number of stores opened (especially in Ontario) AND the cost of legal cannabis, is it any wonder that illegal cannabis retailers are being increasingly brazen in their efforts? Example from 48North’s co-CEO…
Medical Cannabis
While Canada’s population of patients using cannabis as medicine continues to grow, one of the big things holding back more doctors from authorizing cannabis for their patients is the lack of research. The head of the physicians college in NL chimed in to say that doctors still aren’t prescribing CBD because of lack of research.
If you would like to learn more about research in the medical cannabis space, we encourage you to join us for Medical Cannabis Week from May 6-10. Of special interest, the Canadian Club of Toronto luncheon that is part of Business of Cannabis Medical Cannabis Week: Canadian Leadership in Medical Cannabis – with a keynote from Peter Aceto, CEO of CannTrust.
In other Medical Cannabis Week news, later this week we will be announcing our programming for Cannabis + Sport slated for May 10th in Toronto. But golfer Phil Mickelson (perhaps) got a head start…
In the crowded Democratic field looking to gain that party’s nomination for President, candidates are becoming cann-didates trying to out cannabis each other. This week, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said he would “absolutely” consider mass pardons of those convicted of cannabis-related crimes.
And while candidates in the US are talking about, major, multinational CPG companies are also making canna-plays. But did you expect CBD deodorant from Unilever? Well, you should have…
Finally, in case you missed it…
