Canadian cannabis store count crosses the 1,000-mark less than two years after legalization 

There are now over 1,000 licensed cannabis stores in Canada, as new stores in B.C. and Ontario push the store count into quadruple digits. Alberta continues to lead the country with nearly 500 cannabis stores in the province, although several analysts have said the market is saturated and that some stores recently had to close due to challenging conditions. There are also nearly 500 cannabis stores in Ontario waiting to be fully licensed by provincial regulators, with several industry observers expecting those stores to open as late as next year due to a backlog of authorization requests. 

Famed Victoria medical cannabis dispensary protests at B.C. legislature following police raid

Members of a Victoria-based medical cannabis dispensary protested outside the B.C. legislature on Thursday after the its storefront was raided by the province's safety unit, CTV News reports. The Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club was raided on Wednesday, with authorities seizing all cannabis found on the property for the second time in the last eight months. The club was founded in 1996 and offers a wide range of medical cannabis products to its 8,000 members at a lower price than retailers. Ted Smith, the club's founder, said the dispensary is trying to get an exemption from Health Canada in order to continue operating as a non-profit organization.   

Rhode Island regulators put out call for six more medical cannabis dispensaries

Rhode Island is putting out the call for an additional six medical cannabis dispensaries in the state, MJBizDaily reports. The trade industry website said that the announcement from state regulators will triple the number of retail outlets for its US$60 million-plus medical cannabis market. Rhode Island has about 18,000 medical cannabis patients that are served by just three dispensaries. The new dispensary licences will be issued through a lottery process, with one permit issued for each of the six zones in the state, MJBizDaily said. 
 

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DAILY BUZZ

 
 


$6.40

-- The price of a gram of cannabis in Canada, up 2.8 per cent from the prior week, according to the Cannabis Benchmark’s Canada Cannabis Spot Index​​​​​​​. This equates to US$2,137 per pound at current exchange rates.   

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