Maybe I don't get the nuances, but isn't this just the free market?

It gets legalized, tons of shops open up. Turns out after the initial rush it's not very profitable to have half a dozen shops in the same town? Everyone competes, lowers their prices, some shops have to close (the ones with the worst locations). Duh?

Yes. But the greedy business venture folks thought all that prohibition-profit could be gathered with a butterfly net by legally now becoming the “dealers”.

If you read through the old white paper on the matter 5 or 6 years ago (?) put together byb the LPC. It stated that home cultivation should stay in to mitigate the government, or private industry from becoming the new “dealers”. They likened it to the home made wine industry.

This is how it was intended to roll out, more or less. Industry is just pissed because they can’t pull in $10-15 a gram on low- grade, or mids.

People want weed grown with care. It makes all the difference.

Also, they made it all about THC content. …it’s not about that. You can get seriously fucked up on 15% THC with good terpenes, and a short, dull high from 33% corporate junk.

…IMO.

The large producers lobbied the government to protect their investments by writing a regulatory framework that kept small, air and sunshine producers out of the market. Their indoor, monoculture product is often contaminated with mold or illegal pesticides and is of low quality. That means that the majority of people still get their pot products through the black market.

They shot themselves in the foot and are now whining about it. Maybe when they're all bankrupt the government will pull their heads out of their asses and write a realistic regulatory framework. Until then, will just have to watch the large producers flounder and fail and listen to them whine.

I am buying from the same guy I began buying from in 1966. He has a fantastic product at an extremely reasonable price. If he raised his prices to what the legal market is charging I would still buy from him due to the better product. I bought one legal gram on the first day it was legal as I wanted the container.

a saturated market

There's 16 dispensaries in my city, and that's just the ones that show up on google maps. Add in the unlisted ones and the ones on Native land and you're closer to 25-30 stores.

You guys are choking each other out; too many stores for anyone to have a good solid customer base, and prices are still way too high. Maybe that'll mean I can actually buy shatter from them for less than $40/g at some point, but for now I keep buying from street dealers and Native shops. $15-20/g.

I don't really have any sympathy here. I mean, if prices are too low, that means that either competition is too high, or the product isn't as popular as people thought it would be.

Either way, the legalization is doing what it's supposed to do: squeeze out illegal trade and prevent this money from reaching the hands of criminals. I bet that no back alley dealer wants to touch weed with a ten foot pole as there's no way for them to make any real profit anymore.

I'm curious how enforcement has changed since legalization. I'm guessing that the licensed industry is struggling because the black market is still where most buyers go. That and some are poorly run businesses (looking at you Canopy).

We're in the middle of an inflation nightmare right now, so I can understand why people are picking based on price. Weed's not exactly a necessity and it's gotta fit people's budgets. I've *never *seen a $5 gram at a dispensary in Alberta though. The budgetest of the budget stuff is around $7 and it's usually bone dry, tiny little half busted nugs. Basically shake.

I usually spring for the $12-15 grams when I buy flower because the product is typically higher quality and tastes better in my vaporizer. I'm admittedly not a heavy smoker - just a bowl here and there, maybe a few nights a week - so a lower price is less of a draw.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

With high taxes, a saturated market and few options, some of Canada's legal cannabis producers are struggling.

When the federal government legalized the sale of recreational cannabis in October 2018, retail locations popped up one after another as investors and entrepreneurs dove into a new industry that was highlighted as the next big thing for the economy.

However, prices are falling and the industry is taking a hit, and licensed producers and retailers are now looking for new ways to improve their bottom line.

Taylor Giovannini, co-owner of Oceanic Releaf, a cannabis producer based in Burin with nine retail locations across Newfoundland and Labrador, says a lot of the problem is due to how the deal was initially laid out.

Chris Crosbie, chief operating officer of Atlantic Cultivation in St. John's, said Giovannini's concerns are widespread in the industry.

And without any changes to help the industry from the federal level, Crosbie predicts a dire future for many licensed companies across the country.

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I buy all mine from the rez. Flower is like 30% thc and they have really good edibles. No tax either