Nunavut’s legal weed sales total 4.2 kilos so far
Territorial government seeks more suppliers, eyes physical stores
Here are three of the four cannabis products available from the Tweed.com online store. Right now, it’s the only outlet available to Nunavut residents who want to buy cannabis legally.
Nunavut residents have so far bought 4.2 kilograms of legal recreational cannabis through the Tweed.com online store, a Government of Nunavut spokesperson told Nunatsiaq News on Friday, Jan. 18.
That represents 1,147 online orders between Oct. 17, 2018, the day when recreational cannabis became legal, and the end of last December, generating about $17,000 in sales revenues.
“The Government of Nunavut will also receive cannabis taxes on these sales,” the spokesperson said.
Tweed is the brand name for a line of recreational cannabis products produced by Canopy Growth of Smiths Falls, Ont.
Right now, its online shop, Tweed.com, is the only outlet from which Nunavut residents are allowed to buy cannabis legally.
For Nunavut residents, Tweed.com offers dried marijuana only, through a range of four products. Three of them—Highlands Bud, Lemon Skunk Bud and Sativa Bud—contain a high THC content, ranging up to 27 per cent.
THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main psychoactive component of cannabis and is favoured for the euphoric high it produces.
But no cannabis oil products, such as capsules, and no products with a high CBD content are available to Nunavut consumers, though one product on Tweed.com, Balanced Bud, is labelled as containing equal levels of CBD and THC.
CBD, or cannabidiol, is a component of cannabis favoured for its medical and therapeutic properties, and is widely used to treat pain, anxiety, PTSD, epilepsy and other disorders.
And unlike other legal retail outlets, the GN store on Tweed.com doesn’t sell any accessories, such as pipes, bongs, vaporizers and storage containers.
GN seeks more suppliers
There’s a possibility that Nunavut consumers might see those limited options expand in the future, though.
Since the beginning of last November, the Government of Nunavut has sought expressions of interest from companies interested in producing, buying and selling cannabis products on its behalf.
That includes finding suppliers in addition to Canopy Growth, as well as businesses interested in setting up physical cannabis stores in communities to sell product acquired from licenced producers.
“The newly renamed NULC [Nunavut Liquor and Cannabis Commission] will now be considering appointing additional supply agents to sell online and, eventually, may choose to expand into or allow for physical stores within communities,” the GN request for expressions of interest says.
On the issue of physical stores, the GN seems interested in compiling a list of pre-qualified vendors who could work with suppliers to set up physical stores at some point in the future.
Nationwide supply shortage
But for at least a year and perhaps longer, licensed legal cannabis suppliers and retailers across Canada will likely struggle with a serious supply shortage.
That’s because the supply of legally produced cannabis is still too low to keep up with demand and licensed cannabis retailers in most regions have been running out of stock in their online and physical stores.
This past October, the C.D. Howe Institute published a report that estimated that in the full first year of legalization, Canadian consumers will likely demand about 610 tonnes of legal cannabis.
But the supply of legally produced cannabis is likely to reach only about 210 tonnes.
That means the amount of legal supply in Canada this year will equal only 30 to 60 per cent of demand, driving consumers back into the black market and causing governments to lose an estimated $800 million in tax revenue, the report said.
With files from Sarah Rogers
The Government of Nunavut has got it all wrong!!! The majority of consumers in Nunavut are still buying supply from the black market (via online suppliers) because it is substantially cheaper for them and they can access a larger variety of products. The GN’s taxation of approximately 30% is outrageous considering the current market conditions including the relative infancy of the legalized market having to compete with a larger underground market which has been established for decades. If the GN was SMART they would reduce the taxation enough to compete with the black market, which would in turn encourage consumers to purchase legally thus increasing taxation revenues.
Right now the GN is generating a small amount of taxation revenue from the relatively miniscule # of consumers who order legally through Tweed. If they dropped the taxation amount they would generate much more taxation revenue by encouraging much more consumers to purchase Cannabis legally and pay taxes on it. What are they waiting for? Do they need to hire an economist to do a study?
Agreed. When I can buy 30g for 150$ from an online store with a ton of options and have it delivered by the end of the week via expresspost, why would I choose to spend the same amount of money on Tweed for 15g and only 4 choices?
Unfortunately with most of us Nunavummiut unable to buy on-line (due to myriad of issues from lack of internet access to lack of proper financial resources), very many Nunavummiut have not seen any change from the black market dealers in the small communities. Mayhaps a very small percentage is going to the government coffers at present. If the government really wants to be in on this business, then it would require physical selling stations in the communities. At present , there has been very little change in the north.
Ahaha Rankin dealers get rid of that in less than a month at 20$ a gram too
Packaging is not very environmentally friendly, it is aluminum or metal on the outside and plastic on the inside. Packaging should be minimized.
Need to licence independent clean local business people with a physical store not some chain.
I wonder just how much of that revenue is coming from families that should be feeding their children rather than their habits. Funny how we can always find money for things we want but can’t find money for things we really need!
Do you have the same concerns over bingo cards and nutritionally void foods too, like pop and chips? How about booze and tobacco? There are a lot of ways people can misspend.
I wonder if you feel the same indignation at the purchase of pop and chips, tobacco, booze, bingo tickets? Would love to hear more.
Not sure the math adds up? 4.2KGs = 4,200 grams. Total revenue of $17,000 means an average revenue of $4 per gram. Total orders were 1,147 so average order would be $14.82
Is the revenue maybe $170,000 instead of $17,000?
Interesting how the government wants to include liquor stores into this mix. Destroying families and communities is what they want to do. Come on people wake up! Most of Nunavut is depressed and don’t even know it. People have lost countless friends and family to suicide, they have gone through sexual abuse, they are going through addictions, they have been living in with multiple family members due to no housing. They have been bullied through radio, social media, and school.
Why don’t we see the government focus on programs that will help these situations instead of feeding the fire.
Interesting how the government wants to include liquor stores into this mix. Destroying families and communities is what they want to do. Come on people wake up! Most of Nunavut is depressed and don’t even know it. People have lost countless friends and family to suicide, they have gone through sexual abuse, they are going through addictions, they have been living in with multiple family members due to no housing. They have been bullied through radio, social media, and school.
Why don’t we see the government focus on programs that will help these situations instead of feeding the fire. I predict a rise in violence and suicide.
Pretty poor selection. Well we all know that the GN was against legal weed in the first place, and buried their heads in the snow hoping that their Senator “Dennis the Menace” Patterson could get the legislation delayed and killed. Well Dennis did deprive us from having our first legal Cannabis Day on July 1st last year, but that is all he did.
Face it GN legal Cannabis is here, and it is here to stay. Get with the times. Use this as an opportunity to create employment for Inuit. Have a small warehouse in Ontario with a few beneficiaries getting bud from multiple suppliers, and shipping it direct to Nunavut customers, or local Nunavut pot stores. And please don’t give any local licenses to Northern or ACL/local Coops. Let’s give individuals the opportunity to start up their own small businesses.
Let’s really use this as an opportunity, no more of the same old bureaucracy and old boy’s network.
4.2 kg’s of legal weed. my guess is (just cause I don’t know anyone who orders from tweeds) is that the actual online LEGAL weed sales has got to be more than 10 times that, if I know 10 people who order and none from tweeds then this number is extremely low.
I order from Tweed, now. It’s legal and I know I’ll get it, this makes it worry free for me. Is it the best price? Probably not, but it’s reasonable to me. The selection sucks, that’s true, but there is at least one option in there I am happy with. Things could be much worse and I’m sure they will only improve over time.
Black Market: less than $4/gram, lots of variety, lots of supply. Illegal.
Tweed: $15/gram, very limited variety, supply shortages. Legal.
I thought that this was the problem which legalization was going to fix. If I smoke half a gram a day, I would pay over $2700 to follow the law… Or about $700 if I order from the online black market. Not to mention the massively better marketing and improved variety.
If the black market can sell at this low price, while paying their employees and bills, then why can’t the GN get those $4 grams, slap on 50% excise tax, and it’s still be less than half price of the legal market.
Why is this complicated?
Agreed that all of the governments will have to lower their take to put a big dent in the illegal market, but it will start happening, and with the stiffer penalties illegal producers and sellers may face problems down the road. One reason they don’t face prosecution right now is the shortage of legal weed. Once that issue is addressed it’s probable that there will be a crackdown on illegal weed.
Other reasons for a cost difference, illegal producers/sellers pay no taxes, and spend little on quality control. The tax issue is a big one, it’s how we have decided to spread the wealth around, and get large and small projects accomplished. We could go the route of the U.S. (and have in some jurisdictions) and have toll roads/services for every little thing, or collect taxes for the infrastructure.
Having safe weed is important as well. Strict quality control and testing, or no quality control, and no one to sue if anything major is wrong? That’s worth $1 a gram to me.
Having enough cops to make sure that idiots don’t drive high, yeah that’s probably worth another $1 a gram. That money comes from the profit on the legal weed, and the taxes that illegal producers and sellers don’t pay.
Of course $15 a gram is just nuts! It does however show you how thirsty the GN is for tax revenues. The Nunavut Dilemma, virtually no tax base and skyrocketing social, operations, and infrastructure costs caused by a high birth rate, will shortly be apparent to even the most myopic observers.
That s not a big sales figure , goes to show that there is still a big black market. Most pot heads in my town only carry cash and don t have creditcards.
Agreed, this is why we need to see local, licensed distributors.
Like everything else in Nunavut, this thing went ahead in the wrong direction! Disaster preparation reaps in disaster results. The Government of Nunavut will never understand the people it represents. The government is always lagging behind the progress of Nunavummiut. It’s not fake!
I think government weed are added with chemicals some weed start burning like chemical color I hope government weed are not cancer causing pots