Just two days after Canada legalised the recreational use of marijuana, stores have run out of supplies as Canadians line up en masse to by out the product.
Day two of legal recreational marijuana in Canada on Thursday saw long queues outside stores selling marijuana leading to supply shortages of the herb in parts of the country.
Many consumers who had celebrated the end of marijuana prohibition in Canada had however complained over not being able to buy marijuana on the first day.
Other consumers complained about the high prices when compared to the black market. Regular stores prices range from Can$5.25 (US$4.02) per gram in Quebec to can$18.99 per gram in Saskatchewan.
The average price in the black market took plunge in the last year to can$6.79 per gram.
A marijuana consumer, 30 year old Alexandre said he had been turned away after waiting in line for seven hours without being able to get the product.
“It was hell, it was cold, but we had fun anyway, talking with people in the crowd and sharing joints. Yesterday was the day that everyone was waiting for but I think that little by little the queue will decrease,” he said.
41 year old Genevieve Despres, 41, was one of the lucky few to make it inside the store on Wednesday.
Describing the scene as super friendly she said;
“We sang, we laughed, I made friends. I do not usually smoke but since it was a historic day for Canada I thought I’d try.”
About can$750,000 worth of marijuana was sold out in Ontario, Canada’s most populated province in the first few hours of the lifting of prohibition.
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In neighbouring Quebec 42,000 orders were processed in-store and online, smashing all expectations.
According to the Quebec government pot retailer;
“This volume of orders far exceeds the forecasts of the SQDC. It said it was difficult to anticipate the volume of sales, given the lack of data from a sector that 48 hours ago was still illegal.”
The pot retailer said further that short-term supply shortages are expected due to “the craze surrounding legalization of cannabis and the scarcity of product across Canada.”
Canada’s smallest provinces on the Atlantic coast, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, posted Can$660,000 and Can$152,000 in sales, respectively.
While supply shortages were already being reported in the provinces of Newfoundland and Saskatchewan, as well as in the Arctic territory of Nunavut.