While the mainstream media likes to portray the Canadian cannabis sector as
“tepid” and under-performing, the reality is that “retailers across Canada are struggling with a shortage of all cannabis”. Most acute is the shortage for cannabidiol (CBD).
A CTV News
article offers one reason for the shortage. “I don’t think the licensed producers really realized how popular CBD was,” observed Kyrstian Wetulani, operating the City Cannabis Company dispensary in Vancouver.
However, the same article also notes that CBD is especially popular with “first-time and older users”. This raises a more important issue with respect to the growth of the Canadian cannabis industry: continuing efforts to stigmatize consumption of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the mildly psychoactive substance that is produced in significant quantities in marijuana, but not in hemp.
In Canada, many public sector and private employers are prohibiting their employees from using cannabis products containing THC
outside of working hours, despite
no legal or scientific basis of any kind for imposing such a restriction. Such unjustifiable discrimination against cannabis (marijuana) usage, even though it is now fully legal, can be squarely blamed on the federal government and the mainstream media.
The federal government continues to bombard cable TV channels with commercials that
imply that cannabis usage is somehow potentially dangerous. The reason that these commercials only insinuate supposed risks associated with THC consumption is because there is no legitimate scientific evidence of any kind that THC consumption poses health risks.
Indeed, cannabis (THC) consumption is not “contra-indicated” with respect to any prescription medication. What this means is that
cannabis containing THC can be consumed with complete safety, even by people who are consuming other drugs. The only caveat here is given the high-potency cannabis now available for retail consumption, new medicinal/recreational consumers need to be cautious about dosage.
In fact,
scientific research is suggesting that THC might have far greater medicinal benefits than had previously been believed.
THC found more important for therapeutic effects in cannabis than originally thought
Contrast this actual science with the ignorance about cannabis that continues to be relentlessly pumped out by the mainstream media, with the previously mentioned CTV article being an example.
Retailers across Canada are struggling with a shortage of all cannabis, but there's one product they're especially desperate to keep on shelves: cannabidiol or CBD, a non-intoxicating extract vaunted for its purported health benefits. [emphasis mine]
Cannabis is
not an intoxicant.
THC is not an “intoxicant”. In
toxication is the body’s reaction to being poisoned. Alcohol is toxic. Anyone who consumes alcohol is intoxicated (poisoned), with the degree of intoxication exhibited being a function of personal metabolism and the tolerance built up to this toxin from regular usage.
Cannabis is non-toxic. No one who consumes cannabis can become “intoxicated”. Cannabis-users never slur their speech or suffer other impairment of motor functions (symptoms of poisoning) from consuming THC. In fact, evidence is emerging that consuming cannabis might actually
improve the workouts of those who exercise – either before or after a workout. No athlete has ever enhanced physical performance from being poisoned with alcohol.
Cannabinoids, the active ingredients in the cannabis plant, are produced naturally in the human body. These “endocannabinoids” are now widely believed to help to regulate and promote human health.
It is the continued stigmatization of cannabis usage by government combined with the continued distribution of cannabis fiction from the mainstream media that is discouraging the normalization of cannabis usage in our society. Combine this with the reality that the vast majority of retail cannabis sales in Canada continues to come from
the black market (72 percent), and we see that the federal and provincial governments are failing Canadians.
Federally, anti-cannabis commercials discourage rather than encourage cannabis normalization. Regionally, most provinces and territories have provided
grossly inadequate access to retail cannabis – a full six months after legalization.
This is not to discount the positive reasons for CBD consumption. Empirical evidence and emerging scientific research hold out many exciting possibilities in terms of consuming CBD to alleviate health issues and/or for general health promotion. However, what cannabis companies have “underestimated” is how continued anti-cannabis propaganda from the federal government and continued mainstream media ignorance that stigmatizes cannabis (THC) consumption would push consumers towards cannabis products that do not contain THC.
There is a shortage of cannabis products in the Canadian cannabis industry. Even more than this, there is
a shortage of good faith from our federal and provincial governments, clearly revealing themselves as reluctant partners in the normalization of cannabis – after 100 years of completely unjustified cannabis Prohibition.
Equally, there is a woeful lack of good information on cannabis from the mainstream media, which still seems more interested in peddling discredited anti-cannabis mythology rather than learning the facts about cannabis themselves. Canadians deserve better.
Cannabis is the world’s most versatile and (potentially) valuable commercial crop. Investment opportunities in this space will play out over decades. Indeed, government intransigence and incompetence in facilitating the legalization of cannabis is only extending the time horizon for the development of this industry.