Welcome to WeedWeek Canada, the best way to keep up with Canada's green rush.
WWCanada is a Saturday morning newsletter for professionals in the world's largest fully-legal cannabis market. Our goal is to deliver key data and insights in a quick, digestible format.
Every issue of WeedWeekCanada will highlight key developments in political, business and regulatory affairs. Plus, Reporter Jesse Staniforth is incentivized to deliver exclusive scoops.
Like the original
WeedWeek, WWCanada strives
to replicate the separation of business and editorial operations practiced at reputable news organizations. Most importantly,
advertisers have no influence on editorial content.
(For complete ethics statement see the bottom of this email.)
WWCanada is
written by Jesse Staniforth, a freelance journalist in Montreal who
has reported extensively on indigenous issues, cybersecurity, food safety, and cannabis for outlets including Leafly, ThinkProgress, The Walrus and Salon. You can find him on twitter
@jbstaniforth
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ALEX HALPERIN
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Previous episodes feature:
-Episode 7
Dr. Peter Grinspoon, Harvard Medical School, on cannabis, opioids and the medical establishment.
-Episode 4 L.A. cannabis Business attorney
Ariel Clark on what cannabis entrepreneurs need to know
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- The budget anticipates $35M in tax revenues (iPolitics.ca) from cannabis sales in the first year following REC legalization, with a total of $690M in cannabis-based tax revenue expected over five years.
- For the first two years, federal tax revenues would be capped at $100M, and taxes collected beyond that would be distributed to the provinces, which have already forged an agreement with the federal government to split tax revenues (Global News) 75-25 in the provincial favour, though few expect the tax revenues to top $100-million until more than two years into REC legalization.
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- Ottawa Deputy Chief Jill Skinner said a local estimate of $6.2M for Ottawa’s the first year of legalization was unfounded and that no one knows the true cost of legalization, because too many concerns remain unresolved.
- For example, there has not yet been a decision about what police should do with cannabis plants they seize (Ottawa Citizen). If police are required to keep them alive while the relevant trial works its way through the courts, they will need to build greenhouses. If they will sell the plants and pay out to the accused on condition of acquittal, that will need to set up a program for doing so.
- As they continue to struggle with shutting down illegal dispensaries (Ottawa Citizen), the Ottawa police have not budgeted any extra funding for dealing with cannabis legalization this year. Mayor Jim Watson is requesting additional funding from the Ontario and Canadian governments.
- While he will not call for all-out prohibition on cannabis use by members of the military, he says the Forces would adopt “common-sense” rules based on research currently underway by the military’s surgeon general into the effects of cannabis.
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- The Ontario Securities Commission is investigating the Maricann Group for insider trading.
- Two board members under investigation have resigned (Raymond Stone and Neil Tabatznik).
- CEO Ben Ward is also under investigation for his conduct at his previous post, CEO of Canadian Cannabis Corp.
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- Cronos Group already trades on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada.
- Cannabis in Ontario will be sold by the provincial government only, while Alberta will allow private companies to enter the market.
- They will require 8Mft2 of commercial space across Canada, with the greatest concentrations in Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec.
- Though many believe there will be a shortage caused by demand surge once legalization occurs, the ability to grow cannabis at home (in all provinces except Quebec and Manitoba) will quickly cut into it.
- The cost per-gram for legally produced cannabis is projected to be around $8—before 10% federal tax and GST/HST, which should bring that price up to $10 per gram.
- With cannabis selling for a current national average of roughly $7 (CBC Politics) on the black market, $10 legal cannabis doesn’t provide much of an incentive for users to switch to legal weed. Especially considering that Canadians can grow their own.
- In short, the cannabis investment bonanza may not be as limitless as some now believe it will.
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- As yet no school has determined how it will formally regulate use of cannabis in residence.
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Want to reach a devoted audience of top cannabis professionals? Advertise in WeedWeek or WeedWeek Canada. Contact Adrienne Nascimento at
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for details.
Bye,
Jesse
Advertising policy: Advertisers and contributors through Patreon have no influence on WeedWeek's editorial content or on the content of articles that Alex Halperin and other WeedWeek contributors write for other publications. In an effort to replicate the separation of business and editorial operations practiced at reputable news organizations, a WeedWeek salesperson will be responsible for all sales-related contact with advertisers and will work, as much as possible, without input from Halperin. All advertising queries sent to editorial staff will be referred to a salesperson. In all WeedWeek material, all ads and other forms of paid content are clearly distinguishable as such. WeedWeek editorial staff does not approach potential advertisers to solicit business, and reserves the right to reject ads if they present a conflict of interest, the appearance of a conflict of interest or for any other reason. Due to our small size, editorial staff may read ads on the podcast or provide editorial input on ads after they have been purchased.
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