*The provincial excise taxes vary. Cannabis Benchmarks estimates the population weighted average excise tax for Canada.

**CCSI is inclusive of the estimated Federal & Provincial cannabis excise taxes..

The CCSI was assessed at C$6.96 per gram this week, down 3.9% from last week’s C$7.24 per gram. This week’s price equates to US$2,370 per pound at current exchange rates.

This week we focus on Health Canada’s newly released regulations on cannabis extracts, edibles, and other infused products. The rules will permit the production, distribution, and sale of three new product categories:

• Edibles – candy, baked goods, beverages

• Extracts – vapes, oils, resins

• Topicals – ointments, oils, soaps, makeup

The plan sets mid-December as the launch date. The regulations contain very strict packaging and labelling guidelines to diminish appeal to minors and will be thoroughly assessed for flavour, shapes, and branding. Additionally, the proposed products will also be limited to individual packages not exceeding 10mg of THC. As a result, consumers should expect limited selection of products at the outset.

With the anticipation of these new products becoming available sometime around the first anniversary of cannabis legalization, there has been a massive build up of finished and unfinished cannabis oil. According to Health Canada’s Cannabis Tracking Program, as of the end of March, 62,188 litres of finished cannabis oil were sitting within facilities owned by the federally licensed producers (LPs) or distribution points. This inventory has been steadily growing, with a big transfer of product from LPs to retailers taking place in the month of March.

Source: Health Canada, Cannabis Benchmarks

In addition to that inventory, there was 35,867 litres of unfinished inventory waiting to be processed at the LPs’ sites.

Source: Health Canada, Cannabis Benchmarks