Nearly five years after recreational cannabis legalization, legal weed shops are as common as corner stores in most major Canadian cities.
In the biggest metropolis, Toronto, more than 400 cannabis retail licenses have been issued across the city’s six boroughs.
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In contrast, Canada’s second-biggest city – Montreal – is home to only 21 legal cannabis outlets within city limits, plus some stores in outlying suburbs.
All are operated by Quebec’s government-owned recreational cannabis retail monopoly Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC).
Despite having only 98 stores across all of Quebec, the SQDC monopoly appears to have limited plans to open new outlets over the next several years.
Because Canada’s maturing cannabis market has shown a clear link between growing store numbers and increasing legal marijuana sales, Quebec’s restricted retail expansion plans raise questions about how much further the regulated industry can grow sales in Canada’s second-most-populated province.
Read full article on Marijuana Business Daily
