In four years, the cannabis industry’s job growth has increased 161%, quickly beating predictions from other industries 10 years from now.

Leafly’s fifth annual cannabis jobs report showed the cannabis industry to support 321,000 full-time equivalent jobs in 2021! An incredible number for an amazing and highly-deserving industry.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, the organization responsible for regulating cannabis retail in Ontario, will begin issuing 30 cannabis Retail Store Authorizations per week.

The AGCO announced the changes in a blog post earlier this week.

The agency has already increased the pace of RSAs in recent months. In December, the AGCO said it would double its approval pace, and went from issuing 40 RSAs per month to 80.

In the most recent announcement, the AGCO says it will now issue 120 RSAs per month.

Attitudes to cannabis products in the country are changing. In many states, it is legal to buy marijuana for medical use, and some states also allow recreational use of weed.

Medical cannabis legalization can come in many forms, and as such, not all medical cannabis programs, like dispensaries, are created equal.

On one end of the medical cannabis policy spectrum are countries that only permit limited use of CBD medicines/products.

Technically those countries have legalized medical cannabis, however, only in an extremely limited fashion.

On the other end of the spectrum are countries that have fully embraced cannabis as a medicine and patients have safe access to it, complete with the legal right to cultivate cannabis at home.

One component of a medical cannabis program is particularly important at least when it comes to fighting the opioid epidemic.

It’s no secret that the rollout of cannabis legalization has underperformed in countries like Canada. Since legalization in October of 2018, industry experts have warned that the projections of the big cannabis firms and venture capitalists far exceeded the expected demand from the legal market.

In a well-timed tweet, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has announced that the province’s 420th cannabis retail store has been authorized to open.

The AGCO, which regulates cannabis retail in Ontario, sent the tweet at 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday.

After an incomprehensibly slow retail rollout, the province has picked up the pace in recent months. In December, the AGCO reported that it would, once again, double the pace of its cannabis Retail Store Authorizations (RSAs) and issue up to 80 each month.

In September of last year, the agency took steps to double its monthly RSAs from 20 to 40 a month.

Cannabis is not the only industry that can act as a microcosm of the world but it may be the most prominent. Cannabis is still federally illegal so there are many areas in which people can be turned away from participating due to previous arrests for cannabis.

During the Fall Emerge 2020 Virtual Cannabis Conference & Expo, Minorities for Medical Marijuana (M4MM) Founder and CEO Roz McCarthy led a panel discussion with industry-leading advocacy organizations. Together, they addressed the myriad concerns surrounding social equity within the cannabis industry.  

When you go to the grocery store, do you pick your tomatoes based on the greenhouse they came from? Or do you just pick the ones that look the best and go about your day?