Canadian marijuana manufacturers have had to destroy millions of packaged cannabis products and discard hundreds of tons of unpackaged weed ever since the federal government legalized adult consumption in 2018, it’s been reported.
Last October, Canadian companies had around 1.1 billion grams of harvested or processed cannabis sitting in storage with most of it considered ‘largely unsaleable’ due to excess supply or degradation.
The low quality of the products as well as the slow process by which the provinces allowed for licensed stores to sell the cannabis in the years since legalization is being blamed for the destroyed stockpiles.
Canadian marijuana users also prefer to get their products through illicit means as about 50 percent of pot that is consumed north of the border is obtained on the black market, according to The Walrus.
Between 2018 and 2020, Canadian producers have had to destroy 500 tons - or 985,000 pounds - of unpackaged dried cannabis, according to MJBizDaily.
A worker collects cuttings from a marijuana plant at the Canopy Growth Corporation facility in Smiths Falls, Ontario, on January 4
The Canadian Marijuana Index, which lists the country’s largest cannabis producers, reported an 82 percent drop since its high point in January 2018
In 2019 and 2020, companies had to throw out nearly 6 million packages of cannabis that were ready for retail.
Those included 3,783,397 packages of dried cannabis; 1.5 million packages of extracts; 714,491 packages of edibles; and 943 packages of topicals.
The warehoused cannabis combined with the destroyed products means that at least 1.6 million kilograms of marijuana went unsold as of the end of 2020.
Companies destroy the excess cannabis by either combining it with kitty litter or using either incineration or composting.
The website cited statistics provided by Health Canada, the federal agency which regulates cannabis production in the country.
The cannabis industry was considered promising in the months leading up to the legalization. In 2017, the share values of three of Canada’s largest pot manufacturers surged by more than 200 percent.
Investors were getting rich based on hype and the promise of massive sales once legalization was official. By April 2018, there were 102 licensed producers of marijuana.
But companies apparently miscalculated the level of demand and flooded the market with an oversupply of cannabis.
Canopy Growth Corporation, a company once known as Tweed, was at one point worth more than $20billion.
It had several growing facilities spread out across the country,
