Buying weed online has become massive since cannabis was legalized in Canada. The Cannabis Act of 2018 has opened up a whole new world of opportunity for Canadian cannabis connoisseurs.

Among the reasons why weed smokers are flocking to online weed mail order sites are convenience, selection and price. Below we’ll discuss some of the main reasons why people are buying online, followed by a beginner’s guide to buying from an Online dispensary in Canada.

A few years ago, Canada was set to become the industry leader for all things marijuana. But with so many marijuana stocks and a bustling cannabis industry, many believe that the market is not nearly where it should be at this point. There are several contributing reasons as to why the country did not overcome the U.S., which are worth taking a closer look at. Of course, Canada is still considered to be number two alongside the U.S. as far as cannabis industries go. And this is not to say that the U.S. marijuana industry does not have its problems, because it without a doubt does.

Three weeks before the pandemic sent Canadians into a state of emergency, executives at cannabis retail hopeful Mihi were celebrating. After two years of planning, hiring and strategizing, the Ontario-based company was awarded a cannabis retail operating licence by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). The plan was to open its first location in the spring.

Just eight weeks later, after reports of skyrocketing cannabis sales by consumers in lockdown, the company announced that those plans had changed.

In Statistics Canada's latest monthly domestic retail sales update, the government's official numbers cruncher revealed that cannabis sales rose by 19% on a month-over-month basis in March to $181 million Canadian (US$130 million). That gain contrasted dramatically with a relatively pronounced decline in overall retail sales in the country of nearly 8% in the same timeframe.

Much of this, it has to be said, is likely due to "stocking up" behavior among cannabis consumers. March is when mandatory business shutdowns necessitated by the the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus began in many locations, Canada included. People tended to buy large amounts of goods that would sustain or otherwise help them in the isolated circumstances dictated by stay-in-place measures.

As states move to reopen after the coronavirus shutdowns, dispensaries in parts of the country that failed to declare them essential businesses will also start serving their first in-person customers in weeks. 

Marijuana's already looked to as a way to prevent boredom right now, but Canada's University of Lethbridge is studying how it might be effective in preventing COVID-19.

Working with a cannabis therapy research company Pathway RX and the cannabinoid research and development company Sywsh, researchers at the Canadian university have studied over 400 strains of marijuana. The conclusion? At least a dozen strains have shown promise in preventing the virus from latching onto a host in someone's mouth, intestines, and lungs.

Canadians have slowed their buying frenzy when purchasing pot amid the pandemic, said cannabis company executives.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. noticed the COVID-19 boom in cannabis sales dissipating, said Michael Singer, interim chief executive.

"There was a kind of pantry-loading in late March, when there was a concern that maybe the supply chain would be closing down and whether cannabis as an industry would be deemed essential," he said.

After the industry was deemed an essential service in several provinces, he said, things went back down to pre-pandemic levels in April.

"The behaviours were very similar to before that pantry-loading process at the end of March."

A “huge chunk” of Canada’s 383 licensed cannabis companies will face bankruptcy this year, as many now divest their assets and go down to a skeleton crews to survive frozen capital markets during the global pandemic.

That’s according Aaron Salz, chief executive of boutique cannabis investment firm Stoic Advisory in Toronto, who’s been following the global cannabis sector for almost seven years.

It’s been well-documented that Canada’s legal weed industry hasn’t lived up to expectations since its Oct. 17, 2018 inception.

Years of reckless spending, along with slower-than-expected growth, excess supply and a still-thriving illicit market, left many companies with depleted stock prices and almost no access to capital — even prior to the COVID-19 crisis.

Researchers say the minimum legal age to buy and consume recreational cannabis should be 19 years old.

“The writing was on the wall,” says Harrison Stoker, vice-president of brand at Donnelly Group, a 20-year-old company that owns nine Hobo Cannabis stores across Canada. “We knew businesses were going to shut down, even if that didn’t happen right away, there was bound to be a cultural shift that would lead to the inevitable.”