The head of the Société Québécoise du Cannabis says the pot shortage that's forced SQDC stores to shut down three days a week will get worse before it gets better.
Jean-François Bergeron suggests it might not be before next spring before the legal pot supply finally meets the outsized demand.
In the meantime, SQDC outlets will remain closed on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Quebecers looking to buy legal pot in stores or online will have to deal with the possibility that the products they're looking for will be out of stock.
Bergeron says the SQDC anticipated a high demand for its products, but didn't anticipate the problems it's currently having with suppliers.
He says the agency placed orders for nine tons of product from a handful of cannabis suppliers, but so far, it has only received 400 kilograms of that — a paltry 4 per cent.
Suppliers, meanwhile, have also been caught off guard by the demand for their products, but one major Ontario-based supplier told CJAD 800 last week that they, too, are making adjustments to make sure supply eventually meets demand — though that process might take a few months.
In the meantime, it's extremely unlikely the SQDC will hold to its original plan of having 50 of their pot shops open by the end of the year. Currently, 12 of them are in business across the province, including three in Montreal.