BRITISH COLUMBIA (BC) has a reputation among cognoscenti for producing potent cannabis. Vancouver’s easygoing attitude to pot has earned it the nickname Vansterdam. On the back of these attributes, the Canadian province has built a thriving marijuana-export business, estimated at C$2 billion ($1.9 billion) annually by Stephen Easton, an economist at the Fraser Institute. But the industry has been dealt a blow by moves towards marijuana legalisation south of the border.
Legislation approving medicinal marijuana use has been helping to drive down prices in the United States over the past decade. The recent legalisation of recreational marijuana use in the states of Colorado and Washington has added to the downward pressure. Local production has ramped up: there are an estimated 1,000 licensed growing facilities in Colorado alone. Retail outlets in Washington are due to start opening in early July. One pound of cannabis used to sell for $2,000 on the wholesale market in the United States, say insiders, but the price has halved in some areas.
As production increases in the United States, pushing prices down, the economics no longer...Continue reading
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