Canada legalizes 'Weed' and Stores run out of supplies!

Canada on Wednesday became the world’s first major economy and only the second country in the world, after Uruguay, to legalize the recreational use of cannabis and embark on the controversial experiment in drug policy.

Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has defended legalization — the fulfillment of a 2015 campaign promise — as intended to protect young people and to shut down drug dealers.

Day two of legal recreational cannabis in Canada on Thursday saw more long lineups outside pot stores and supply shortages in parts of the country.

Most consumers were exuberant about the end of prohibition, but a few expressed disappointment over not being able to buy cannabis on the first day.

Others balked at the relatively high prices — ranging from Can$5.25 (US$4.02) in Quebec to Can$18.99 in Saskatchewan per gram — compared to the black market that saw average prices plunge in the last year to Can$6.79 per gram.

“I do not usually smoke but since it was a historic day for Canada I thought I’d try,” she told AFP.

Despres smoked bought pot with a low level of THC, the psychoactive agent in cannabis.

“My God it’s the bomb!” she said — and returned with friends Thursday to buy more.

In Ontario, Canada’s most populated province, 38,000 orders for weed worth about Can$750,000 were processed in the first few hours Wednesday (total figures for the day were not yet available), while in neighboring Quebec 42,000 orders were processed in-store and online, smashing all expectations.

“This volume of orders far exceeds the forecasts of the SQDC,” the Quebec government pot retailer said.

It said it was “difficult to anticipate the volume of sales … given the lack of data from a sector that 48 hours ago was still illegal.”

The statement added that short-term supply shortages are expected due to “the craze surrounding legalization of cannabis and the scarcity of product across Canada.”

Canada’s smallest provinces on the Atlantic coast, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, posted Can$660,000 and Can$152,000 in sales, respectively.

Supply shortages were already reported in the provinces of Newfoundland and Saskatchewan, as well as in the Arctic territory of Nunavut.

Several online retailers including the Ontario government’s pot portal warned customers to expect shipping delays of up to five days as they worked late into the night filling orders.

Canada Post workers are also poised to strike starting on Monday after more than a year of contract talks stalled, which could further delay deliveries of online orders.

But there has been pushback from some doctors and the opposition Tories against the legalization

In total, Statistics Canada says 5.4 million Canadians will buy cannabis from legal dispensaries in 2018 — about 15 percent of the population. Around 4.9 million already smoke.

“We expected, you know, certain strains might run out and there would be a bit of a run on supply,” Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief who is the government’s pointman for legalization, told public broadcaster CBC.

“But, you know, they’ve got a pretty good infrastructure in place and I’m confident it will work,” he said.

Source The Gaurdian