The lack of legal supply has turned many people back to the black market and to purchasing their marijuana illegally.
TORONTO — It’s only been two weeks since marijuana was legalized in Canada and already the country is having trouble meeting demand for citizens wanting to indulge, according to the Associated Press.
That’s in large part because the licensing process for businesses looking to sell legalized marijuana has been bogged down. In turn, there are only a few places to go to buy marijuana legally and those businesses are selling out at extraordinary rates.
Trevor Tobin is the co-owner of two marijuana shops in Canada. His shop went 10 days without product to sell because of the shortage.
„The producers keep saying there will be some bumps in the road, but right now it’s not a bump in the road. It’s a big pothole,“ Tobin said.
Each province is responsible for sales and regulation of marijuana but no one has seemed to find a proper way to meet demand from customers. Some shops are closing for three or four days a week until they can better control the supply.
Ontario, the most populated province in Canada won’t have any stores open until at least April, meaning all sales must go through a government run website. That website received 150,000 orders in the first week.
That was more than all the other provinces combined according to the AP.
The lack of legal supply has turned many people back to the black market and to purchasing their marijuana illegally.
Devyn Stackhouse, a 30-year-old student at Ottawa’s Algonquin College said he placed an order through the government website, but after waiting for more than a week for his order to arrive, he decided to go underground to but his pot.
„If (the government) were serious about access, serious about smothering the black market, then more resources would have been allocated to the OCS,“ Stackhouse said, referring to the Ontario Cannabis Store website.
