If homegrown Nova Scotia cannabis is what you were hoping to find at the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. (NSLC) on day one of legalization, you didn’t get it.
But that will soon change.
There are a few licensed cannabis producers in Nova Scotia but Joe Sanford and his team at Breathing Green Solutions are the first to receive a sales license from Health Canada.
“The application process is the biggest hurdle to get through with Health Canada,” Joe Sanford said, the operations manager at Breathing Green Solutions.
READ MORE: Nova Scotia sells more than $660K in cannabis during first day of legalization
That means the cannabis sold on NSLC shelves may soon carry a legitimate local flavour.
“The first licensed producer … just got their license to be able to sell to us,” said Beverley Ware, a NSLC spokesperson. “So, we will be in conversations with them now about what they might be able to offer to us: what sort of strains they might have for us, what type of quantities.”
According to Sanford, the demand for cannabis products is so high in Nova Scotia that there is room for multiple licensed producers in the market.
“As it sits right now, with capacity at Breathing Green we can produce 2,500 to 3,000 kilograms of product per year. Which is approximately only 10 per cent of the demand in Nova Scotia alone,” he said.
“So, there is all kinds of room for other players in Nova Scotia.”
The NSLC anticipated opening cannabis sales on Oct. 17 with less than 40 per cent of its product due to challenges acquiring enough supply.
Ware says the product is now moving smoother, even though the NSLC has issued social media advisories informing customers that they are short on pre-rolled joints, and out of oils completely.