Wasted Weed: Canada’s Disposal of 3.7 Million Pounds of Cannabis Since 2018 Oversupply has been a real issue for the cannabis industry.

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

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96 points

«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

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68 points

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

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43 points

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

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11 points
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It’s cheaper and probably way easier to use higher potency cannabis

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4 points

There’s more than enough of that to go around.

Doesn’t make economic sense to process low value plants into low value extracts.

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31 points

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

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24 points

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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14 points

They should sell it for biomass fuel. :)

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6 points

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

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8 points

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

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4 points
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I don’t think you understand that the bottom end of the weed market in Canada is literally $0 per giant ziplock bag of homegrown that your friend can’t possibly smoke all of.

People arent willing to pay anything for low quality weed because it literally grows on trees… 1lb per plant is a very modest yield for Southern / Eastern Ontario growing conditions and will yield ~1814g or ~5442 normal sized joints, ~15 / day, every single day of the year. And it literally takes no extra work than typical gardening until harvest season … There’s just no market for low quality weed.

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2 points

they claim it, but it’s just spin put on by the company. Any THC levels are usable in some fashion, even if not directly smok-able flower.

even 5% flower could be used to create potent extracts.

These are companies who bet big on production for international growth, and that never materialized. And now they’re stuck with production capabilities that aren’t profitable. Aurora Cannabis lost over $1 billion in 2022 over it’s misguided growth plans and killed itself.

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33 points

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

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1 point

They should’ve destroyed it by burning, a lot of people would come take a look

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1 point

That’s a sin.

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141 points
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How about we change the title juuuuust a bit…

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

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55 points

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34 points

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.

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8 points

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

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7 points

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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0 points
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Deleted by creator
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-8 points

How does throwing away cannabis prevent prices from falling?

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21 points

When demand is high and supply is low they raise prices but when supply is high and demand is low they don’t lower prices, the lower supply.

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5 points

Okay but…couldn’t they just NOT grow more instead?

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9 points

Economics 101: additional supply is counteracted by lower demand (meaning lower prices to compete for that demand)

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4 points

Economics 102: no single company controls supply. If you don’t make it, someone else will.

Also if you want to decrease supply you can simply grow less, there’s no need to throw out perfectly good product.

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48 points

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

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42 points

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.

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12 points

This is me :)

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42 points

Hey man. I’m just like… Doing my best.

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9 points

You’ve been bested 😱 😜 😂

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9 points

Me too, eh! Rolls another one, while singing “Oh Canada…”.

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