PRE-ROLLS FTW
Canadian pre-rolls sales almost doubled last year
Pre-rolled joints are Canada’s second-favourite cannabis category after dried flower, according to Headset data and analysis by MJBizDaily. Sales nearly doubled between 2020 and 2021.
A few trends have also emerged within the category:
- Similar to US markets, ultra-convenient multipacks of pre-rolls are increasing in popularity
- Value products are crucial to the budget-conscious pre-roll shopper
- Infused pre-rolls, like those infused with hash or other concentrates, have emerged as a good option for premium shoppers
“The infused pre-rolls are popping off right now, for sure,” said Ryan Roch of Alberta’s Lake City Cannabis. “We’re selling quite a few of them on a regular basis.”
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FIRST 100 IN NY
After two years in jail, Eladio Guzmán dreams of opening a dispensary
Hicksville, NY’s Eladio Guzmán spent two years in jail for selling cannabis. Multiple members of his wife Melissa’s family were also impacted by the war on drugs, with her uncle even getting deported to the Dominican Republic after serving 10 years.
Now, the couple is dreaming of opening their own cannabis dispensary once they’re eligible, per Richmond News. The state of New York has reserved its first 100 retail licenses for those who have been impacted by prohibition. But because the Guzmáns haven’t had the minimum 10% stake in a profitable business—one of the requirements to snag a social equity retail license—they aren’t yet able to apply.
In the meantime, they plan to call their store Fumaoo, and are visiting conferences and workshops to learn about the industry. “This is an opportunity for me to take the negative that I did and actually help me do something positive,” Eladio said.
YOU’LL WANT FRIES WITH THAT
ShinyBud opens drive-thru cannabis store in Ottawa
Ottawa’s first drive-thru cannabis store has opened at Carling and Fairlawn avenues, per Ottawa Business Journal.
It’s a way to differentiate itself from competitors, but will also serve as a testing ground for future franchise opportunities, said chairman and CEO Kevin Reed.
“From coffee to cannabis, this unique store features a small bricks-and-mortar footprint, allowing us to continue testing ideal store sizes that maximize revenue per square foot as we plan to open additional stores through our franchising program across Ontario,” he said in a statement.
REPRESENTATION MATTERS
The barriers facing Black cannabis entrepreneurs
It’s been well-established that there are woefully few Black cannabis entrepreneurs in US cannabis.
But why?
Fortune highlighted a few reasons:
- Lack of access to capital for equipment or real estate leases
- Licenses with “strings attached,” such as high municipal fees to operate or long wait-times for licenses to come through
Some state regulators, particularly those in New York, are trying to improve equity in cannabis by learning from existing market inequities, such as the aforementioned reserved licenses for social equity applicants and a fund designed to help them secure real estate.
“They’re staffing their marijuana regulatory board with local activists,” said Perry Salzhauer, founding partner of the Green Light Law Group. “They’re making sure that the people who are chosen to run OCM (the Office of Cannabis Management), government employees as they may be, are people who understand the mission, and they launched the mission with equity in mind.”
