It's a basic tenet of retailing: if you want to reach more customers, you need more locations. And according to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, that principle applies to pot just as much any other product. 

The chamber says people in this province are open to allowing a bigger role for private industry in providing convenient access to cannabis, if it helps get rid of the black market — pointing to a Nanos survey conducted online at the end of October.

The poll, released Thursday, suggests 51 per cent of Ontarians would favour allowing private-sector companies to purchase, distribute and sell cannabis, with the province's oversight. But not everyone's convinced it will get rid of the illegal market, especially heavy smokers like Abi Roach. 

Close to a year after opting out, Mississauga will reconsider allowing retail cannabis stores in the city.

The city will look again at cannabis storefronts in the new year, in part, Mayor Bonnie Crombie said, because of the persistence of the illegal market in Mississauga. She said she was “very startled” by the amount of unauthorized cannabis businesses in the city.

Crombie said the full costs of allowing cannabis stores, from enforcement to public health and education, is to be determined.

“Certainly, there would be a much higher bylaw cost than we had anticipated given the proliferation of the illegal outlets to purchase,” she said.

Shares of The Green Organic Dutchman (TSX:TGOD) are trading at $0.99 and reached a  record low of $0.97 yesterday. The stock has lost 83% in market value since March 2019. TGOD stock has declined 72% in the last three months.

TGOD has been impacted by overall weakness in the cannabis sector. Shares of cannabis giants such as Aurora Cannabis, Hexo, Aphria, and Canopy Growth are trading 65%, 75%, 61%, and 62%, respectively, from their 52-week highs.

We have seen cannabis stocks have been driven lower due to the overestimation of product demand as well as competition concerns from the illegal market in Canada.

An Ontario cannabis company’s plan to put down roots in London – and bring more than 200 promised jobs – has gone up in smoke.

Beleave Kannabis Inc., a licensed pot producer with an operation in Hamilton, bought the former Heritage Garden Gallery greenhouse at 6867 Wellington Rd. S. last September, paying $6.7 million at the time.

The company planned to grow cannabis inside the 23,000-square-metre greenhouse and on an outdoor plot located on the 34-hectare property.

The Oakville-headquartered grower pledged to invest $30 million in the facility, employ an estimated 240 workers and be operational by September 2019, then-chief executive Bill Panagiotakopoulos told the Free Press at the time.

This is the first year Tom has not felt the need to booby-trap his backyard.

An inveterate pot grower, the North York man says new laws allowing Canadians to raise up to four of the plants per household set his mind at ease for the first time in more than half a century of cannabis cultivation.

“For all the years gone by I used to MacGyver the place,” says Tom, who did not want his last name used. “I would put fishing lines along the ground with tin cans so it would make noise if anybody went back there at nighttime. This year I didn’t worry about any of that, I just let it grow.”

The federal government's effort to rein in the cost of reimbursing veterans for their medical marijuana appears to have failed as new figures show Ottawa shelled out a record $75 million in the last fiscal year.

And that is only the beginning: the Veterans Affairs Canada figures show the government is on track to spend nearly $100 million this year as more and more former service members ask the government to pay for their cannabis.

The growing use of medical marijuana by veterans — and the growing cost to taxpayers — comes despite an overhaul of the way the government reimburses ex-military personnel for pot in November 2016.

Drake is reportedly making a sizable investment in the Canadian cannabis industry, along with other celebrities such as Martha Stewart, Snoop Dogg and Alex Rogan.

When Canada legalized marijuana, U.S. customs and immigration officials stated they could refuse entry not only to any person who uses or has used marijuana, but also to anyone who has invested or holds shares in a cannabis company.

It will be interesting to see how much difficulty these celebrities have returning to the U.S. after an engagement or doing business in Canada. I’m guessing none.

Sluggish cannabis retail in Canada’s largest province has been a sore point for everyday pot consumers and billion-dollar licenced producers alike since recreational legalization over a year ago. 

Provinces charted their own course in establishing legal alternatives to the black market, resulting in a patchwork of public and private channels for online and brick-and-mortar sales. No two markets are as often compared as Ontario and Alberta. 

One key difference is the fact that Ontario has opened just 24 physical cannabis stores versus about 300 in Alberta, a province with roughly 10 million fewer residents.