With the passing of new regulation, the next phase of Canadian cannabis legalization has begun.
On Oct 17, 2019, cannabis concentrates, edibles, vapes, and topicals were finally greenlit by the Canadian government, exactly one year after the country legalized recreational cannabis.
Although Canada had largely legalized last year, a number of cannabis products, primarily those containing concentrated forms of cannabis, were still banned. The reason for this was that the Canadian government wanted robust regulation in place before these more potent products could be made widely available to the public. And now, that regulation has finally arrived.
The new raft of measures dubbed “Cannabis 2.0” aims to finally bring concentrates and edibles to market in Canadian dispensaries. Furthermore, vape carts, cannabis infused beverages and topical creams are also included.
Although they were officially legalized on October 17th, Health Canada, the government regulator, had imposed a mandatory 60-day review period which meant that official sales could not begin until Dec 16 at the earliest. As a result, no Canadian dispensary could order products until this date, which means it’s unlikely Canadians will see these products on the shelves until late January at the earliest. However, realistically it will be well into 2020 before cannabis concentrates become staples in dispensaries.
While this is of course a welcome development in cannabis legalization, the Canadian government has established fairly strict regulation surrounding these products. Edibles, for instance, can contain no more than 10 mg of THC per packaged product, while concentrates, vape carts and topicals have a limit of 1000 mg per container. Furthermore, packaging will be tightly regulated to ensure these products, especially edibles, do not appeal to children. In fact, packaging must be plain, and containers must be child proof.
In 2019, Canada’s cannabis industry generated $1.6 billion in revenue, and according to CNN Business, that figure is forecast to reach $3.7 billion by the end of 2020 as a direct result of these new products hitting shelves.
With commercial concentrate production now in the cards for Canada’s cannabis producers, it surely won’t be long before the country sees an explosion in cannabis concentrates like the US has. Which also means a bright future for solventless rosin in Canada.
