Michael Armstrong, Associate Professor of Operations Research in Brock’s Goodman School of Business, wrote a piece recently published in the Globe and Mail about shortages of dry cannabis and cannabis oil in Canada.

Armstrong writes:

Last week, Health Canada posted cannabis industry data for March that finally included monthly production figures. Those preliminary numbers confirm Canada still has massive product shortages, despite some improvements. But the shortages differ greatly between dry cannabis and cannabis oil, and so require different solutions.

Health Canada said recreational and medical sales in March totalled 7,918 litres of cannabis oil and 7,627 kg of dry cannabis. Those are (just barely) the highest monthly volumes since legalization took effect.

Also last week, Statistics Canada reported March recreational sales were worth $60.5 million. That too is the strongest result so far.

But both reports imply legal sales still only cover about one-fifth of total consumption. (Not nearly 50 per cent, as federal Border Security minister Bill Blair reportedly claimed last week.) The rest remains with black markets.

To see why, we need to separate the dry and oil categories.

Continue reading the full article here.