There’s so much happening in Quebec in the areas we cover I thought it best to cover each one separately (no pun intended). This piece is a look at the latest in weed news and will include my patented short summary and translation of the juicier bits.
Shock! Horror! Quebec dispensaries will sell Ontario pot
In the Journal de Quebec, Annabelle Blais stokes the ever present resentment around Ontario. Quebec is the hot girl at prom who is secretly jealous of the dowdy president of the student council who gets straight As. The Queen Bee is like oh my gawd, why are you even buying weed from her.
The piece dated from Valentine’s day also notes the SAQ (Quebec’s LCBO) estimates it will need about 50,000 kilos of product at launch. This is the esplanation for why this fine distinct organization is buying it’s grass from MedReleaf (LEAF.T).
Mme. Blais basically beats a strong nationalist drum complaining about the fact the Quebec golden boy of pot, Hydropothecary (THCX.T) is still not an SAQ aupplier, even though they’d really like to be, gosh darn it.
She even gives them a quote (Hydropothecary spokesperson Pierre Kileen, translation mine)
“Quebec is our priority. The Quebec market is the one we want to supply first. It’s common sense.”
MedReleaf ducked questions when contacted, which she gleefully points out.
Chickens are coming home to roost, y’all. I have been saying for a long time to watch what Hydropothecary is doing to make the kind of inroads into the closed shop of Quebec Inc. This kind of press are the first fruits of this effort.
I’d give a lot of the credit for this to Dr. Terry Lake. I worked with his office back in my government days, and they were all sharp as tacks. He’s running their Government Relations shop I hear, and he’s quite active on Twitter.
Dr. Lake and his team have scored a big win by getting Hydropothecary into the ‘Chez-Nous’ (Homegrown) club. Played correctly, tax breaks, subsidies and caisse de depot money will flow.
Meanwhile, how’s MedReleaf doing?
Looks like a nice bump as the news got out, and a selloff soon after. As Rod Serling used to say, ‘presented without comment’.
To get into more detail on all the current suppliers, check out the next story below.
The Producers!
Julien Arsenault in Le Devoir has a piece on the winners in the Quebec pot derby. Contradicting the Journal (see above), they claim the SAQ will need 62,000 kgs. of product.
But wait… a Miracle has occured. On the same day we all despaired for poor Hydropothecary, a last minute buzzer beater! Yes, they are thrilled to be supplying up to 20,000 kgs. to their fellow Quebecers. Phew. I feel better. Don’t you feel better?
Here’s what Sebastien St-Louis ‘President-Directeur-General’ of Hydropothecary had to say about it (translation mine.
“It’s an important order for us. It’s 20 million grams. I doubt there’s ever been an illegal sale of that size”
Ok Seb, sure. I wonder who forgot to call the Journal de Quebec to ask to walk back their quote. Seems kinda silly to have two pieces come out on the same day with wildly different facts.
Ah well, we have always been at war with Oceania.
The rest of the piece is a run down of the other suppliers, and noting the SAQ didn’t get back to him in time for a quote.
FYI – the six names are very familiar, leading off with Hydropothecary, Aurora Cannabis, MedReleaf, Aphira and Tilray.
All of these have been covered extensively by us in the past, check it out 🙂
To bring it together, what’s interesting and noteworthy here, again, is that Hydropothecary is THE go to brand for the Quebec media. They get quotes, they get listed first in news pieces, and they have no shame bringing pressure to bear.
Other producers better step up their local government relations game, or they are going to get trampled in this market.
In part 2- Cryptooh-la-la….