As the legalization of cannabis in Nova Scotia nears its six-month anniversary, it appears sales are still “smoking hot” across the province, including Cape Breton.

“While we aren’t experiencing the lineups in our stores that we saw in the early days, we are seeing a consistent pattern in sales with our stores in metro Halifax and Sydney River doing the greatest volume of business,” said Beverly Ware, spokeswoman with the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp.

“The growth of local product sales continues to be strong as Nova Scotians appreciate the quality of local product offerings and show their support for innovative local business that provide local jobs and invest in their communities.”

Ware said the Joseph Howe Drive store remains the busiest in the province with the Sydney River store the second busiest. Of the 12 NSLC locations across the province that dispense legal marijuana, the Sydney River outlet is the only one in Cape Breton.

Ware said they are seeing the same sales trends in all their stores across Nova Scotia.

“The most popular products are the smaller package sizes of products that have high THC levels and this is consistent in our stores across the province.”

Cannabis became legal in Canada Oct. 17, 2018, allowing an adult 18 years or older to legally possess 150 grams of fresh cannabis.

In February, the NSLC released it’s third quarter financial statements, which showed alcohol sales of $163.5 million and recreational cannabis sales at $17.4 million. There were 456,822 customer transactions for cannabis, with the average dollar value of $38.

Ware said supply remains an ongoing issue in Nova Scotia and across Canada.

“We are working hard to secure the inventory our customers want and it’s expected to take some time before that stabilizes.”

The shortages are in the smaller package sizes of high THC products and in pure CBD oil.

Ware said because the NSLC developed its process for listings and replenishment to be flexible, they’ve been able to bring on new licensed producers as they receive their licences from Health Canada to sell.

Ware said the supply situation has gotten slightly better since they’ve been able to add two Nova Scotia licensed producers including most recently, Highland Grow, of Antigonish, in the New Year.

She said this brings it up to 17 producers they carry product from now, from the 14 they issued purchase orders with leading into legalization.

In the meantime there are no plans to expand cannabis products to other NSLC stores in Cape Breton.

“While we continue to evaluate our operations, our focus continues to be on securing supply for our existing stores and our online customers,” Ware said. “We are still in the very early stages of this brand-new industry so we also need to get a solid sales history established that will allow us to evaluate our operations.”