this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
463 points (96.8% liked)

World News

39011 readers
2799 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Wasted Weed: Canada’s Disposal of 3.7 Million Pounds of Cannabis Since 2018 Oversupply has been a real issue for the cannabis industry.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] sighofannoyance@lemmy.world 93 points 10 months ago (4 children)

«Industry expert and consultant Farrell Miller notes that the majority of this discarded product was destroyed for being too old and having too little THC. “There is no demand for old and low-THC products, so manufacturers of finished products are not buying this biomass as inputs,” she said. “It’s likely low-quality material with no value. “As consumers become more savvy with packaging dates on dried cannabis products, this trend will only continue.”»

They claim nobody wants it

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 67 points 10 months ago (3 children)

That makes no sense. Low content strains are perfect for all sorts of concentrates.

[–] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 42 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, any trim or whack weeds could easily be repurposed for concentrates. Theres probably more to it than just "nobody wants it"

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 46 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The size of the market was vastly overestimated. Every pothead wanted a slice of the business, so they all started up companies thinking there was unlimited growth potential. It was rapidly saturated and now we're in the collapse and consolidation phase, exacerbated by the higher interest rates and inflation.

Canada's population is similar to California, but it's producing weed enough for a country several times its size.

Plus the black market still exists, albeit in a small scope, due to price, quality, variety, or loyalty reasons.

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is exactly what happened in Oklahoma

[–] Uglyhead@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

And people from all around Oklahoma traveled there just for their low prices.

[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

My state started up sales last year and I watched the prices drop a lot over the year. It's mostly sold in eighths and the average eighth went from $40 to $20 for high quality products

[–] Steve@startrek.website 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Whats the overall legal status of cannabis in canada?

[–] sailingbythelee@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago

It's legal all across Canada at the federal level. The provinces have the ability to regulate administrative aspects such as where it can be sold, who can sell it, how much it is taxed, where it can be grown, etc.

However, unlike the USA, criminal law is the same across the whole country. There are no provincial criminal codes. So, provinces have no ability to criminalize cannabis.

[–] Nomecks@lemmy.ca 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

It's cheaper and probably way easier to use higher potency cannabis

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What's more value than 100% if the product is considered worthless as flower?

[–] Nomecks@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago

Taking a write down for tax purposes versus trying to move crap product, just like any other industry.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There’s more than enough of that to go around.

Doesn’t make economic sense to process low value plants into low value extracts.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Not everyone wants a 85% THC extract with a minimal CBD profile.

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 months ago

It's still more efficient with way less energy usage, wear and tear on your machines, and residue build up, to distill high potency strains into concentrates and then dilute that down to the desired potency, rather than chew through enormous amounts of plant matter to get to the same concentrate.

[–] mx_smith@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago (3 children)

So why is their hemp industry not thriving. They should be making fabrics and paper with it.

[–] Coreidan@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I’m fairly certain hemp isn’t made from the flower, which is the part of the plant that is sold for weed consumption.

What they are throwing away is the flower. The part they would use to make hemp is already long gone.

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 4 points 10 months ago

In addition, in order to get useful fibers, plants are sown at a density of at least several hundred seeds per square meter. They stretch to 2-3 meters tall trying to win the race to the sunlight. Stalks of plants grown in the typical indoor grow way are only good as very low grade biomass for methane digestion or as chips that might serve in hemplime or hempcrete. An insignificant market so far as these technologies are still going through the regulatory processes to be used more widely.

There are effective dual cropping systems that can yield cannabinoids from flower and get useful fiber but it is not common yet either.

[–] mx_smith@lemmy.world -5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I’m fairly certain that it’s the same plant with less active cannabinoids. The gender doesn’t matter. They can use all of it.

[–] QuinceDaPence@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago

Them discarding the flower doesn't mean they arent using the hemp part.

I would imagine they seperate those almost immediately if not the moment it's out of the ground. If they're using a combine to harvest it, then that probably seperates it.

[–] nogooduser@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

They should sell it for biomass fuel. :)

[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This just in, huffing your cars exhaust gets you H.I.G.H.

[–] the_post_of_tom_joad@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 2 points 10 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Could work out well

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

This was my first thought, too.

[–] sighofannoyance@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think Hemp is a different species that has low amounts of thc.

[–] OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Same species! The line between them is actually pretty blurry and some strains are inbetween. They're just different general 'types' within the same species

[–] optissima@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Different "types" in horticulture are called variants, for future explanation reference.

[–] OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago
[–] Cheers@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Supply and demand. No one wants it for the price they're charging.

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I don't think you understand that the bottom end of the weed market in Canada is literally $0 per giant ziplock bag of homegrown that your friend can't possibly smoke all of.

People arent willing to pay anything for low quality weed because it literally grows on trees... 1lb per plant is a very modest yield for Southern / Eastern Ontario growing conditions and will yield ~1814g or ~5442 normal sized joints, ~15 / day, every single day of the year. And it literally takes no extra work than typical gardening until harvest season ... There's just no market for low quality weed.

[–] Cheers@sh.itjust.works 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Then it's time to start selling 2 ziplock bags at $1. We're fucking late stage capitalism, companies need to realize, just because they build it, doesn't mean they get to charge whatever the fuck they want. If they can't compete with your friend's shitty leftover weed, then maybe they're in the wrong business, because even McDonald's can sell shitty fake meat burgers for $1.

[–] Alenalda@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I haven't seen a 1$ burger at McDonald's in almost 5 years.

[–] Sprawlie@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

they claim it, but it's just spin put on by the company. Any THC levels are usable in some fashion, even if not directly smok-able flower.

even 5% flower could be used to create potent extracts.

These are companies who bet big on production for international growth, and that never materialized. And now they're stuck with production capabilities that aren't profitable. Aurora Cannabis lost over $1 billion in 2022 over it's misguided growth plans and killed itself.