• Each company will eventually be allowed to own as many as 75 stores. In the first year, they cannot own more than 30 stores.
  CTV News
• Beginning in April 2020—eight months after the government's initial announcement in August that it would move to allocating stores based on "market demand"—the province will begin licensing 20 REC stores per month.
  MJ Biz Daily, CBC Toronto
• Ontario Cannabis Store CEO Cal Bricker said he was "ready to implement" the plan.
• A Toronto retail consultant I spoke with at MJBizCon in Las Vegas this week mimed her head exploding at mention of the government's initially stated goal of 1,000 stores, or even half as many. "How much more staff do you imagine the province would need to hire to make that possible?" she said.
  CTV News

• BMO analyst Tamy Chen suggested overall industry sales volumes could increase as much as 35% if Ontario opened a total 325 stores over 2020. Unless the government begins approving more than 20 stores monthly, however, Ontario will not have more than 180 new stores by the end of 2020.
• To equal Alberta's stores-per-person rate, Ontario would need 1,000 stores. At the proposed rate, it would take until 2024 to open that many.
  Global News

• The less than $1B in sales fell far short of Deloitte's prediction that the REC industry could hit $4.34B in the first year, and failed to meet's Brightfield Group's prediction of USD$1.2B in sales.
  Bloomberg
• For those concerned about growth in the legal industry, the news is good: it's been close to constant.
  Inside the Jar
• The provinces received $640M in taxes from cannabis in the first year. (One commentator noted, "$600M in taxes on $900M in sales. Either this math is way off or we've found the reason why legal weed is so expensive.")
  Toronto Star, Twitter—Kev in the Shed

• Yukon sold $103 worth of cannabis per person, compared with $97 in PEI, $68 in Nova Scotia. BC, with its entrenched legacy system, only spent $10 per capita, while Ontario spent $15.
• Monthly REC sales have increased from $39.58M in October 2018 to $121.45M in September 2019—though over that same period, online sales declined from $17.17M to $7.12M.

Quick Hits

1. Saskatoon police laid only eight charges for cannabis-impaired driving (out of 41 impaired driving charges in the city of 273,000) in the first year after legalization.
   CTV News
2. AdCann celebrated six examples of decent-looking packaging that's Health Canada–compliant.
   AdCann

• Manitoba expects to have vape pens and edibles in stock in December, though a provincial spokesperson warned, "Shipping times and product availability will vary by supplier."
  Winnipeg Free Press
• Ontario will not have 2.0 products available before the new year, though Ontario Cannabis Store CEO Cal Bricker argued, "People are not going to have to fight for access to cannabis products as a result of some kind of shortage on the supply side on 2.0. I don’t see that happening. I think people learned a lot the first time around."
  GrowthOp
• Quebec specifically chose to delay legalizing (a sharply limited array of) 2.0 products (not including vapes) until the new year, to harmonize the new products with the decision to raise the age of consumption to 21.
  La Presse—In French
• British Columbia LPs and retailers aren't sure whether they'll have new products in stock before the new year, though the Globe's Jameson Berkow reported BC will stock 145 vape products, 11 "extracts for inhaling," 54 edibles, 53 drinks, and 12 topicals.
  Montreal Gazette, Twitter—Jameson Berkow
• Even if you do live in a province that will have 2.0 products for sale in 2019, don't expect edibles in time for Christmas.
  CityNews, GrowthOp

• In an atypical moment of common sense around vaping, British Columbia announced it would not apply its new 13% vape tax to dry-herb vaporizers.
  Twitter—Matt Lamers
• The industry has high hopes for vape products, in spite of the recent panic over vaping illness. Canopy VP communications Jordan Sinclair predicted vape products would comprise the "lion's share" of the 2.0 profits.
  Vice

• That follows on last week's controversial news the US FDA does not consider CBD proven safe, which also worries Canadian insiders.
  The Star

• Klein will move from New York City to Canopy headquarters in Smith's Falls, Ontario. After Linton's termination, some wondered whether the company would relocate.
  MarketWatch
• Analysts believe the move raises odds that Constellation will buy Canopy outright, particularly given the company's focus on REC beverages. Bruce Linton predicted they could buy the company before selling the MED division in two years for "more than they paid for the whole thing." Analysts believe Constellation is taking increasing control over Canopy.
  Bloomberg, MarketWatch
• Linton and Zekulin both reported tensions in the company followed the Fortune 500 company taking control of Canopy's board following its US$4 Billion investment in the company.
  Financial Post

• At another point, Lamers noted, Klein said, "We have to pick through those capability sets [Bruce Linton developed for Canopy] and line up the biggest profit pools with the highest probability of success and focus in those areas."
  Twitter—Matt Lamers

Quick Hits

1. After its share price fell below $1, CannTrust received notice from the New York Stock Exchange it was no longer in compliance.
   Stockwatch
2. Firefighters put out a small fire at Organigram's Moncton processing facility. No one was hurt and no product damaged.
   CTV News

• "I am completely opposed to the legalization of marijuana"
  Twitter—Julian Fantino
• "I see legalizing it or putting it in shops as trying to normalize narcotics, when the truth is there is nothing normal about it. It’s a mind-altering drug that causes impairments and like cigarettes is not healthy," and
  Toronto Sun
• "Justin Trudeau will make harmful drugs more accessible in Vaughan [Ontario]. […] Legalization is an irresponsible policy that only puts dangerous drugs on the streets and in our communities, and sends the wrong message to children that recreational drug use is okay."
  York Region
• He also compared legalizing cannabis to legalizing murder, in 2004. CBC Toronto

• When he joined MED LP Aleafia two years later, he argued, "We're not in the marijuana business. We're a health delivery system."
  CBC Toronto
• Fantino will have a hard time maintaining that position as One Plant, a REC brand in which Aleafia owns a 9.9% stake, applies for a license to open a large REC store in Toronto's Kensington Market.
  BlogTO
• In a shot across the bow of legacy cannabis culture, One Plant's proposed location in a former supermarket at 241 Augusta is nearly directly across the street from Abi Roach's beloved Hotbox Lounge, emblematic of pre-legalization anti-corporate cannabis in Toronto.
  Toronto Sun
• Detractors remember when as chief of police, Fantino oversaw dispensary raids in Kensington Market, and they're not happy. One municipal activist is encouraging Torontonians to go beyond boycotting and file objections with Ontario cannabis regulators, who might deny the application if it receives too many complaints.
  Twitter—Pedro Marques, Caryma Sa'd

Quick Hits

1. A Jimmy’s Cannabis Shop franchise in Cranbrook BC thought they were paying the RCMP a compliment when they covered one window with a large photo of historic Mountie Sam Steele, who “brought law and order to the West” in the 1800s. The RCMP asked them to remove it, but ultimately relented.
   CBC British Columbia, Rossland News
2. The North Vancouver RCMP caused a brief social media sensation by Tweeting an account of stopping a driver who smelled of cannabis, finding a bag of cannabis in his car, giving the driver a sobriety test that he passed, and giving him back his cannabis, “Because those are the laws.”
   GrowthOp, Twitter—North Vancouver RCMP

• Arcview Group CEO Troy Dayton said to expect opportunities for distressed-asset deals, "collecting companies for pennies on the dollar.”
• At MJBIZCON's Investor Intel Conference, Cowen Research told the room, "On a revenue basis, the U.S. [multi-state operators] trade at a 40% discount relative to Canadian LP's."
  Twitter—Deepak Anand
• A CIBC World Markets report called this year's cannabis stock plummet an inevitable "rationalization" of over-inflated prices, and predicted the sector would improve in 2020.
  MJ Biz Daily

Quick Hits

1. A MED patient, who smelled of cannabis, was refused beer by a cashier in an Ottawa Loblaw grocery store. The patient said she hadn't used MED in over a day, but her jacket smelled like it. Loblaws defended the cashier's hard line.
   CTV News
2. As promised, Miss Universe Canada, Alyssa Boston, made legal cannabis the central focus of her appearance at the Miss Universe pageant, beginning with her fluffy green pot-leaf festooned “Canadian Cannabis Queen” costume.
   Inside the Jar

• One letter called for the minister of public security to pursue "strict regulation of cannabis," while in another the minister of health was advised to maintain cannabis regulations based on "public safety, responsible usage, and keeping cannabis away from children." Insiders surmised this suggests the government will not loosen Health Canada regulations (around packaging, edibles, and many other things) any time soon, despite industry pleading.
  Twitter—Matt Lamers

• Bishop said the "mandate letters […] wrongly assume they got everything right the first time out, have nothing to learn from real world experience."
• Bishop's whole thread is worth a read.
  Twitter—Cameron Bishop

Quick Hits

1. Adolfo Gonzalez, cannabis trainer, argued LPs should respect breeders' work and use original cultivar names—which become associated with more verifiable information about the plant.
   The Straight

• Grower and Inside the Jar editor Travis Lane listed a series of problems in its cannabis handling he believes BC needs to fix before its legal REC market might flourish. These include lack of climate control in warehouses, which discourages "anyone focused on quality [from selling] into that system," inability to avoid unethical distributors, and growers' lack of control of price.
  Twitter—Travis Lane

• The province is following on first Hexo, which introduced a budget brand in Ontario and Quebec, and then Zenabis, which introduced $5/g REC flower in New Brunswick.
  Leafly

1. Chefs from abroad are visiting Vancouver to learn how to cook with cannabis.
   CBC British Columbia
2. Inuit stoners have told me how the introduction of unlicensed Mail Order Marijuana websites (MOMs) dramatically changed cannabis consumption in remote Northern Inuit hamlets, introducing southern variety and pricing to fly-in-only communities used to paying premiums for schwag. The revolution may not last. Last week, Nunavik police working with Canada Post seized $1M worth of drugs (primarily cannabis) (and more than $700,000 worth of alcohol) from mail coming into the Inuit communities of northern Quebec, but they can't charge anyone.
   Nunatsiaq News

• The "Community Safety Unit," is separate from the RCMP and the Vancouver police, created to bust post-legalization illicit growers and sellers, and empowered to enter premises without warrants and seize evidence.
  Inside the Jar
• Longtime unlicensed grower and legalization advocate Travis Lane wrote a thread balancing the merits and perils of illicit growers entering the legal market, while Jamie Shaw wrote a thread about the effect of the busts on MED patients who prefer unlicensed compassion clubs to the federal LP system. Both are worth reading.

• Of course, MacLean's store, City Cannabis (formerly VanCity Weeds, part of dispensary chain Wildflower Brands of which MacLean is CEO) was illegal before it got a license. "We face competition from retailers who don’t want to follow the rules," MacLean complained. Former colleagues in the illicit market weren't impressed.
  The Province, Twitter—Courtland Sandover-Sly, Travis Lane

Quick Hits

1. A Centre for Addiction and Mental Health study found stoned drivers tended to be inappropriately slow and have difficulty keeping their vehicles centred in their lanes. But the research also tested the same drivers 24 and 48 hours later, during which they showed no signs of motor impairment. Some believe the research proves zero-tolerance-within-24-hours driving rules are unscientific.
   Global News