It’s the 15th of the month which is payday for many of us. If you were going to set aside a portion of your take-home cash to saunter down to a cannabis store on Wednesday to buy some weed, you shouldn’t bother because apparently most, if not all, of the licensed stores won’t be open as of the Big Day when recreational marijuana becomes legal in Canada. It has to do with supply and demand. There may be a demand but the problem is with supply. There may be enough chickens for every pot, to borrow from an old saying, but right now there isn’t enough pot for every pot. Canada’s supply of legal cannabis at current production levels is estimated to meet between 30-60% of total demand as of legalization day. This not only has implications for those who are eagerly waiting to buy pot legally but also for government coffers who won’t see as much revenue from sales and excise taxes in the beginning. I’m sure production will ramp up and supply should eventually meet demand at some point. There’s too much money waiting to be made by producers, sellers and governments to hold things up for too long. In the meantime, expect October 17 to be just another day with no need for media reporters to video non-existent lineups at unopened cannabis retail outlets.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.