The gigantic hot mess the cannabis industry is in has become overshadowed by COVID-19. Whilst the virus spread has exacerbated the industry malaise, the rest of the world’s industries just caught up pretty fast. This pandemic provides a shadow to hide in for cannabis.

Which is just as well.

I saw a beautiful quote on cannatwitter this week:

2017 – an illegal activity; 2020 – an essential service.

It is good news that licensed cannabis stores have been given the green light to stay open. The regulations about online sales and 30g maximum purchase orders caught the regulators in a bind of their own making. The illicit market would stand to benefit greatly from any store closures; and may have sounded the death knell of the nascent legal industry.

Still, there is more bad news. Business of Cannabis reports this Benchmark data point: 14000 kg of product sold in February, but stored product (at distributors or LPs) growing into the 60000s kg. Ouch. And the industry is not at full production, LPs are still touting new production coming online.

I am not sure how many more weeks of the Cannabis Diaries I have left in me now it has left me. The industry likewise.

This Much We Know.