Saint Hyacinth, Quebec resident Manuel Torres was pulled over by New York police while speeding on the Northway as reported by The Post-Star of Glens Falls. Shortly after, 20-year-old Torres was approached by another St. Hyacinth local, 25-year-old Antoine Benoit who pulled over just behind Torres. Benoit then told Torres that he would be in New York City in 45 minutes, arousing police suspicion reports the Montreal Gazette.
When police questioned Benoit on his connection to Torres, Benoit claimed there was none. Trooper Brian Russell, the one who stopped the pair of St. Hyacinthe residents, went on to say “Your story doesn’t make much sense” and later reported “After the suspects failed to provide logical answers to the officer’s questions, police searched the vans to find 180 (80 kg) pounds of cannabis and $3,400 cash.”
Canopy Growth and Drake team up on new cannabis venture
Canopy Growth Corporation, formerly Tweed Marijuana, is teaming up with Toronto-based rapper and recently-named artist of the decade Drake.
Drake will now be holding a 60 percent stake in More Life and Smiths Falls-based Canopy Growth will own the remain 40 percent.
Canopy Growth will provide all day-to-day operations and maintenance of the Toronto-based More Life cannabis production facility, also retaining all rights to product distribution at the location.
On the flip side of the deal, Drake has granted More Life exclusive rights to use certain intellectual property, brands, and imagery with the growth and sale of marijuana and marijuana products, merchandise, paraphernalia, and accessories at home and abroad.
The move to partner with Canopy Growth came shortly after Drake had sent out bouquets of flowers to various companies around the GTA, hoping to make partnerships headed into his next business venture.
Though the partnership seems to be a match made in heaven for both parties, only time will tell whether or not this business venture is as successful as his others.
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TOO MUCH WEED: Government has over 30 times more marijuana than it's able to sell
Canada has a marijuana problem, but it’s not the one you might think.
It’s quite the opposite: Canada is sitting on massive stashes of uncompleted inventory that many analysts believe could cause massive price crashes in the industry.
Since the year’s start, the unfinished inventory of cannabis has nearly tripled, reaching 328,000 kilograms since August’s end. That number has jumped nearly threefold since February, according to The Financial Post.
Health Canada defines unfinished inventory as the amount of cannabis held in stock by a “cultivator or processor that is not packaged, labelled and ready for sale.”
As of right now, sales of dried marijuana reached just 13,000 kilograms in August, meaning that total inventory tracked by Health Canada was nearly 30 times higher than the industry’s sales rate for the month of August.
While it’s difficult to predict what percentage of the inventory is dried marijuana versus plain trimmings from plants that can be used for “extract products” such as oils and concentrates.
If a large proportion of that 328,000 kilograms is dried bud, that’s going to be a big problem for the LPs,” said Matt Bottomley, a cannabis analyst at Canaccord Genuity Corp.
“I suspect it’ll be a race to the bottom with price because everyone now has more than enough supply,” he said.
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Albertans have purchased more legal marijuana than any other province
New data from Statistics Canada shows that Albertans spend big money on legal marijuana—so much so that they’re the number one province in marijuana sales.
The report reviewed data from legalization in October of last year, to June of 2019.
The data shows Alberta as the number one legal market in Canada with more than $123.6 million in sales, beating out the second-place Ontario market at $121.6 million, with Quebec making the podium at $119.2 million in sales.
Alberta’s cannabis boom is thanks in part to the Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis department, said Darren Bondar to CBC.
Bondar, the CEO of Spirit Leaf who runs a chain of cannabis stores out of Calgary, says the AGLC has done the best at rolling out the cannabis campaign.
“Alberta and the AGLC have done the best job of any province in the country,”
Bondar went on to say that the AGLC had previous experience with private liquor stores, which greatly helped them in opening 275 private cannabis vendors provincially.
Ontario is expected to take the throne in the near future, as they are expected to open another 50 stores in the fall. British Columbia, a province which many expected to see massive marijuana sales, stumbled out of the gate as investment in legal cannabis was low. B.C., who has the third-largest population in Canada, came in at ninth on the list of sales.
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Pardons for simple marijuana possession coming soon for 250,000 Canadians
The Trudeau government has finally introduced a bill which allows Canadians to receive free no-wait pardons for previous simple possession or cannabis charges by applying through a website.
The Justice Minister Lametti estimates there are upwards of 250,000 Canadians with some form of cannabis possession convictions.
“Instead of waiting five years and paying a parole board $631, applicants will no longer have to wait a single minute and will not owe the parole board a single cent,” said Federal Justice Minister David Lametti.
“We know that this is particularly significant for many in minority communities, including black and Indigenous Canadians who have been disproportionately affected by the enforcement of cannabis laws.”
While the process will be instant and free, there will be a rules-based procedure.
Individuals with previous records will have to get their fingerprints taken, apply for a copy of their criminal record and get a record check from the police.
Former military members will have to also get a copy of their conduct sheet.
While the pardons are sure to help thousands of Canadians living in Canada, multiple media outlets have reported that the United States will not recognize Canadian pardons.
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