When Abi Roach thinks about the 20 years she spent fighting for Canada to legalize cannabis, she says pot legislation is like a clenched fist.
Yet the razzle-dazzle days where money was no object and sky-high demand was expected are gone, replaced by a sobering reality: legalization has fallen well short of expectations. Canadians wanted more potent products in packaging that wasn’t dull. Others couldn’t shake relationships with longtime dispensaries and dealers who could supply pot at a fraction of the price of the legal market.
In November 2021, a report from Deloitte Canada and cannabis research firms Hifyre and BDSA said the average price for dried cannabis was $7.50, down from $11.78 per gram at the start of 2019. While these rates were palatable at the time of legalization, when people predicted cannabis would sell for $10 per gram and taxes would thus be low, pot companies are now almost universally railing against the rates.A May 2022 analysis from the Cannabis Council of Canada found a package with 28 grams of flower selling with HST for $124.78 would carry excise duties of $29.13, or 23 per cent of the purchase price.
Until the regulations are reformed, Roach maintains there’s going to be a “continued mess” in the industry while the illicit market maintains its strength. “It probably is the single biggest challenge because if the illicit market would have gone away, as people predicted, you wouldn’t have seen the dramatic shutdown of facilities and layoff of employees,” he said.Thousands of cannabis workers have received pink slips over the last five years and many of the greenhouses and offices where they worked are in the hands of new owners.