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 150 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

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

[–] sighofannoyance@lemmy.world 94 points 10 months ago (4 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 67 points 10 months ago (5 children)

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

[–] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 42 points 10 months 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 46 points 10 months 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 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

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

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[–] mx_smith@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago (6 children)

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

[–] Coreidan@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months 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.

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[–] nogooduser@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

They should sell it for biomass fuel. :)

[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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

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[–] Cheers@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Supply and demand. No one wants it for the price they're charging.

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[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 32 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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

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[–] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 142 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (13 children)

How about we change the title juuuuust a bit...

Since 2018 Canada Destroyed 3.7 Million Pounds of Cannabis Rather Than Let Prices Fall

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 34 points 10 months ago (2 children)

That's not really that accurate. The article explicitly says that much of the waste is caused by growers who overproduced low quality weed, when most of the market is focused on really high potency cannabis.

[–] pineapple_pizza@lemmy.dexlit.xyz 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I miss low quality weed, I feel like I get too high now. Maybe I'm just getting old lol

[–] Got_Bent@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

There was a giggle quality to that old nineties brick weed that the modern stuff just doesn't have.

The experience went from, "that stain in the carpet is hilarious. Who threw my burrito against the wall?" to, "the cosmic, like, existence, is, whoa, did I think that? I can't find my face."

Modern stuff is so potent that I can't stay conscious on even the smallest of hits. Great for sleep aid, useless for doing anything.

Sometimes I just wanna laugh at Ren and Stimpy while I've got a pile of cheeseburgers in a feed bag strapped around my neck, you know?

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[–] Sdnimm543@slrpnk.net 48 points 10 months ago

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

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 42 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's probably got a lot to do with the market being relatively new. I imagine things will settle down in the coming years as producers gain real data to base demand estimates off of.

Also, I think initially some people were conflating support for legalization with actual demand. There are many people that support legalization who don't actually use the product.

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 12 points 10 months ago

This is me :)

[–] Bo7a@lemmy.ca 42 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] ForestOrca@kbin.social 9 points 10 months ago

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

[–] sighofannoyance@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

You've been bested 😱 😜 😂

[–] dlpkl@lemmy.world 41 points 10 months 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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[–] Sprawlie@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago (9 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 16 points 10 months 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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[–] Frog-Brawler@kbin.social 25 points 10 months ago

Lower the price???

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

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[–] BobbyNevada@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 10 months 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.

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[–] TIMMAY@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago

ayo send me some I can pick up the slack

[–] unreasonabro@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months 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 19 points 10 months 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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[–] SomeGuy69@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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

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[–] studabakerhawk@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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

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[–] rab@lemmy.ca 11 points 10 months 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 10 months ago (12 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 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months 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 7 points 10 months 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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[–] Meanshadows35@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

I'll take some bricks right here.

[–] TomMasz@kbin.social 9 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Supply exceeded demand, it happens.

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[–] Zaphod@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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

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[–] TheDeepState@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It’s puff, puff, and then pass.

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