this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
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Wasted Weed: Canada’s Disposal of 3.7 Million Pounds of Cannabis Since 2018 Oversupply has been a real issue for the cannabis industry.

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[–] ABCDE@lemmy.world 134 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Export or stop making so much (or discount it, or give it away).

[–] sighofannoyance@lemmy.world 86 points 2 years ago (3 children)

«Industry expert and consultant Farrell Miller notes that the majority of this discarded product was destroyed for being too old and having too little THC. “There is no demand for old and low-THC products, so manufacturers of finished products are not buying this biomass as inputs,” she said. “It’s likely low-quality material with no value. “As consumers become more savvy with packaging dates on dried cannabis products, this trend will only continue.”»

They claim nobody wants it

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 60 points 2 years ago (3 children)

That makes no sense. Low content strains are perfect for all sorts of concentrates.

[–] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 37 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, any trim or whack weeds could easily be repurposed for concentrates. Theres probably more to it than just "nobody wants it"

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 44 points 2 years ago (5 children)

The size of the market was vastly overestimated. Every pothead wanted a slice of the business, so they all started up companies thinking there was unlimited growth potential. It was rapidly saturated and now we're in the collapse and consolidation phase, exacerbated by the higher interest rates and inflation.

Canada's population is similar to California, but it's producing weed enough for a country several times its size.

Plus the black market still exists, albeit in a small scope, due to price, quality, variety, or loyalty reasons.

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[–] Nomecks@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

It's cheaper and probably way easier to use higher potency cannabis

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[–] mx_smith@lemmy.world 27 points 2 years ago (3 children)

So why is their hemp industry not thriving. They should be making fabrics and paper with it.

[–] Coreidan@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I’m fairly certain hemp isn’t made from the flower, which is the part of the plant that is sold for weed consumption.

What they are throwing away is the flower. The part they would use to make hemp is already long gone.

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 years ago

In addition, in order to get useful fibers, plants are sown at a density of at least several hundred seeds per square meter. They stretch to 2-3 meters tall trying to win the race to the sunlight. Stalks of plants grown in the typical indoor grow way are only good as very low grade biomass for methane digestion or as chips that might serve in hemplime or hempcrete. An insignificant market so far as these technologies are still going through the regulatory processes to be used more widely.

There are effective dual cropping systems that can yield cannabinoids from flower and get useful fiber but it is not common yet either.

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[–] nogooduser@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They should sell it for biomass fuel. :)

[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago

This just in, huffing your cars exhaust gets you H.I.G.H.

[–] sighofannoyance@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think Hemp is a different species that has low amounts of thc.

[–] OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Same species! The line between them is actually pretty blurry and some strains are inbetween. They're just different general 'types' within the same species

[–] optissima@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Different "types" in horticulture are called variants, for future explanation reference.

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[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 26 points 2 years ago (2 children)

They could have free weed events for tourism. I’ve been meaning to drive up there.

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[–] Sdnimm543@slrpnk.net 41 points 2 years ago

It's a weird way to frame misspeculating and overestimating demand, but whatever makes you feel better, industry.

[–] Bo7a@lemmy.ca 36 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Hey man. I'm just like... Doing my best.

[–] ForestOrca@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago

Me too, eh! Rolls another one, while singing "Oh Canada...".

[–] sighofannoyance@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

You've been bested 😱 😜 😂

[–] dlpkl@lemmy.world 36 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Weirdly phrased title. The Canadian government has no role in throwing away product or setting the price, that falls on the businesses that manufacture and sell the weed.

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[–] Frog-Brawler@kbin.social 23 points 2 years ago

Lower the price???

[–] Sprawlie@lemmy.world 22 points 2 years ago (8 children)

Want to Chime in since there's a lot of weird misinformation and conjecture in the comments:

The over-production was a business decision by many of the producers. A bad one. But they knew they were producing more flower than the Canadian market needed at any price point. Dropping price down isn't going to dramatically increase the consumption as polling / research by stats can shows the people smoking todtay, are the same who were smoking illegally before, and that the overall Cannabis market (while huge) isn't something that was ballooning.

I had invested in numerous stocks in the industry back when legalization started to gain ground. As an investor and reading the reports, one thing was clear. Everyone of the biggest producers believed they were going to be international gods of pot and be able to sell world wide. Many hedged billions on producing enough flower for the American market with hopes that the US would follow along very shortly.

These poor business decisions led to the large producers, such as Canopy, and Aurora from making over-building production to the point that even if they shut several of their operations, they would still over-produce for the Canadian market.

at the end, this was some MBA deciding that profit margins would be higher by writing off the excess weed instead of spending additional resources to use it in other products (it still can be used for extracts and edibles even if low quality)

This is what happens when you create a new industry (Producers) and let it be run by the MBA's and giant businesses instead of those who are actually involved in the industry in the first place.

as soon as I saw these happening I sold out on their stocks. IOf you go look up these companies current valuations, they're almost worthless and worth pennies compared to when they started due to their horrific management. (Aurora Cannabis lost 1 Billion in a year)

[–] Smoogs@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (2 children)

End stage capitalism: when you realize the population you’re selling to has a finite number and neglect to scale to parameter and still feel like you’re owed.

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[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Though even the derivative products are still competing with the other products. You don't really need to get high from flower and an extract. You might get both for variety, but consumption of one will slow consumption of the other.

And yeah, it was dumb to assume that even if the US legalized it that there wouldn't suddenly be a bunch of US producers wanting to get in on it. It's not hard to figure out how to produce it. The plant can grow in all kinds of conditions and the hardest part is keeping it from reproducing more than you'd like.

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[–] BobbyNevada@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Can one compost old weed? Turn it into weed mulch? Could someone buy it wholesale and make something else? This feels like a problem a little R and D could solve.

[–] BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

In high school, weed mulch was all we had.

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[–] SomeGuy69@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Hey send some of that oversupply to me, yeah, thanks.

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[–] TIMMAY@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago

ayo send me some I can pick up the slack

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 18 points 2 years ago

If nobody wants it I guess I could take it off your hands. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[–] unreasonabro@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Sounds like the price is too high. Stupid fucking government. How dare you pride yourself on high prices. Are you not trying to disrupt the illegal trade? Why the fuck are you using their numbers, retards? GEE WHY ISNT ANYBODY BUYING OUR GREEDY FUCKING OUNCES and man, you should see the fucking website. Doug ford can go fuck himself with a forklift.

Try this amazing philosophy: if you can make that much, but can't sell that much, it's cuz it ain't worth that much not cuz nobody will buy it. Unless it's, you know, shit. AND FURTHERMORE, since clearly the government is going to read this, you might want to doublecheck that quality control isn't just taking the cheque and AFKing, cuz from this end that's how it looks!

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[–] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Pot shop on every corner in Ontario. Shops are usually empty anytime I go in. Picking up whole ounces for $100. It was a scam run by the province to sell dispensary licenses because Doug Ford only knows how to run scams instead of doing good business based on good policy.

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[–] studabakerhawk@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

We're smoking. It's just not that weed.

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[–] rab@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I mean we throw away groceries in the same fashion, I think that's just how capitalism works

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[–] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago (7 children)

I've never used cannabis in my life, but last year I got a wild hair and decided to buy a gummy. It had no effect on me save for wanting to go to bed early, but I did my part y'all.

[–] Cinner@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It's a well known phenomena that some people just don't get high their first time(s). I knew a guy since high school and years after that was basically immune to it. People gave him huge vape bags and massive doses of edibles and it never had an effect. Never saw the guy forget a single word. Then apparently at some point it did, because he smokes now.

There are also people who are terrible at metabolizing gummies. I'm not one of them. Give me 2mg and I'm good. Give me 20mg and I'm curled up in the fetal position in bed waiting for the visions and monsters in my head to go away.

[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Same experience. My gf felt like she had a cold. We both tried it 3x with same results.

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[–] Kage520@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Everyone's dose is unique. You'd have to slowly move the dose up (without overdoing it, because edibles last awhile) to the desired effect.

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[–] TomMasz@kbin.social 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Supply exceeded demand, it happens.

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[–] Meanshadows35@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

I'll take some bricks right here.

[–] Zaphod@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Send it to Germany :)
We need it soon (hopefully)

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[–] TheDeepState@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It’s puff, puff, and then pass.

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[–] Stanwich@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

They fucked everything up. I know there were big issues with major gangs making money ect..... but no one seems to get that there were soooooooo many mom and pop operations making a little tax free money that went direct into the communities. They were buying quads , snowmobiles from local dealerships. Paying cash to local restaurants. There were people who couldn't find other jobs for reasons that could trim and grow to support themselves. It was a great industry for the lower to middle class to rise up without being screwed .

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