Canadian cannabis consumers love nothing more than to weigh in on our country’s legalization rollout. In Ontario — often cited as having one of the worst of all the provinces — that often means a whole lot of criticism.

From the ill-conceived storefront licence lottery to complaints about quality and pricing, there’s been no shortage of issues to shake one’s head at. But the Ontario Cannabis Store has been hard at work listening to feedback, adjusting prices and perhaps most importantly, collecting data about these all-important early days for the burgeoning sector.

Ontarians shelled out almost $20 million in the first three months that edibles and other products in Canada's second wave of legalization were available for sale — and experts believe that number will only grow.

Cannabis vapes, topicals, concentrates and edibles such as gummies and chocolates hit store shelves in January with beverages following in March, but roughly $19.3 million worth of those products were sold in Ontario in the 12 months ending at March 2020.

The province's distributor, the Ontario Cannabis Store, said vapes were the most popular products in the second wave of legalization, known as Cannabis 2.0. About $14.8 million worth of vapes were sold in the first three months they were available.

Marijuana stocks have without a doubt had a tough time in the past six months. With the coronavirus fighting off positive market sentiment, it seems as though in the past few weeks, pot stocks have begun to fight back. During that time, we have seen a continual increase in leading marijuana stock prices. It seems as though cannabis stocks are working to keep up with market demand as the desire to purchase cannabis continues to increase. Although the cannabis industry does still have a long way to go, it seems as though cannabis stocks are here for the long term.

Today the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) published A Year in Review (2019-2020): Ontario’s first full year of legal cannabis operations as a resource for the Ontario cannabis industry. It provides comprehensive data including detailed sales figures by category and brand, pricing information and consumer trends.

This transparent and publicly available source of cannabis data is an important milestone in building Canada’s largest, most dynamic, legal cannabis marketplace. The report will evolve over time with the goal of supporting authorized retailers and licensed producers, informing social responsibility efforts and offering a transparent view into Ontario’s cannabis sector.

Ontario sold more than 35 tonnes of legal cannabis in the past year, according to the province's Crown corporation in charge of selling pot online and to the wholesale market. 

The Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) released its initial report detailing how the first full fiscal year of sales fared late Monday, showing exactly which brands and products sold well in Canada's most populous province and how sales helped take a significant chunk of sales away from the illicit market. 

When Dan Aykroyd’s Crystal Head Vodka made its Canadian debut more than a decade ago, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario banned it. It wasn’t because Akroyd was promoting the “clean” and “premium” nature of the product, or using his celebrity status to sell booze. No issues there. It was the skull-shaped bottle that had them worried. 

Cannabis sales in B.C. are soaring thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.

They surged in March to a record monthly total of more than $23.5 million, according to Statistics Canada. That’s more than eight times the $2.84 million that British Columbians spent on legal weed in the same month a year ago.

The same trend held true countrywide. Canadians spent nearly $181.1 million on legal cannabis in March, or nearly triple the $60.9 million that they spent in March 2019, according to the federal statistics agency.

Some factors at play, particularly in B.C., include:

•more legal stores;

•fewer black-market stores;

•newly legal product categories, such as edibles;

•improved product quality; and

The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has exposed critical vulnerabilities in national governments and business operations around the world.

The virus is significantly disrupting supply chains and consumer habits on a global level that will reverberate across every industry in the coming months.

The aftershocks of the crisis could last for years.

While the legal cannabis industry is theoretically recession-resistant in the same way alcohol and pharmaceutical sales have been impervious to historical downturns, cultivators must take necessary measures to safeguard their long-term financial safety.

A few cannabis stocks made a strong comeback in May 2020. This consistent upward surge in the last month has garnered investor attention. Does this mean pot stocks are poised to move higher in the second half of 2020 and crush market returns? Or is the recent uptick a temporary recovery?

It’s hard to say where we are in the COVID-19 pandemic right now, as infections and deaths continue to rise. But there have been movements in the cannabis industry that are changing the way the industry operates amid the pandemic that may stay post-pandemic.

Being allowed to operate as an “essential” business in the U.S. — which had a few bumps in the road between including both medical with recreational as essential businesses in states such as Colorado (that state quickly changed and added recreational) and Massachusetts — was one positive result that gave the industry some needed respect.

Sales have been strong, and delivery options were expanded as well.