Legalization 2.0 has officially arrived in Canada, and the market is expected to generate an impressive $2.7 billion annually. Canadian consumers who have been keen to get their hands on edible and drinkable cannabis products can expect them to hit the shelves by mid-December.
Some of the most sought after options include edibles, topicals, and beverages; however, there could be some unexpected cannabis products moving from the medical market into the recreational space in the coming months as well.
The medical cannabis market has been the testing ground for several pot-derived products that haven't been accessible by recreational users. Now, this could all change with the new wave of legalization.
Here are some of the exciting products that might become available to recreational cannabis consumers in the not-so-distant future.
Cannabis Clones and Seedlings
To date, Canadian licensed producers have shied away from offering cannabis clones to provinces across the country. Cannabis clones are different from cannabis seedlings in that they are grown from clippings as opposed to seeds, which shortens the time to harvest.
Newfoundland and Labrador became the first province to make cannabis clones available to recreational users through its provincial board in December 2018. Saskatchewan also allows its residents to buy cannabis seedlings, while Ontario is in the process of doing the same.
This is good news for licensed producers operating in these regions, such as industry giant Canopy Growth Corp (TSX:WEED) (NYSE:CGC) and Eve & Co Inc. (TSXV:EVE) (OTCQX:EEVVF), both of which currently supply Newfoundland with clones.
Surprisingly, British Columbia has yet to allow non-medical cannabis users to buy cannabis plants, but there have been talks of this happening in the future.
Dissolvable Strips
Apart from cannabis flower and cannabis oil, Canadian licensed producers are also allowed to sell discrete forms of cannabis oil like soft gels and oil capsules. One company that took this a step further in a bid to bypass edibles laws was Aurora Cannabis (TSX:ACB) (NYSE:ACB).
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In early October, prior to legalization 2.0, Aurora announced the launch of its Dissolve Strips™, which the company says provides unique advantages over other ingestible products due to their ease of administration, discrete nature, and accurate dosage.
It wouldn't be a surprise to see other companies follow suit and develop their own dissolvable cannabis strips for the market in the near future.
Cannabis Glass Tasters
Another one of the cannabis products that's expected to cross over from medical to recreational are glass tasters. These products are one-hit sample sizes of dried cannabis strains and have been available to medical patients through CannMart since earlier this year.
CannMart, which is Namaste Technologies' (TSXV:N) (OTCQB:NXTTF) 'everything cannabis store,' offers medical patients 0.25g flower tasters that are packaged in convenient glass one-hitters.
Aurora's subsidiary, Spectrum Therapeutics, is also offering trial sizes of its dried flowers and soft gel cannabis products to medical patients.
Although glass tasters might not be useful to consumers who know the strains they want, they might be a great way for curious smokers to sample a variety of strains before deciding to make bigger purchases. These sample sizes might also appeal to beginners who are keen to microdose.
It might make sense for other cannabis companies to jump on board with these samples. CannMart prices its 0.25g glass tasters from $3.99 to $4.25, meaning these products could net better returns than gram bags of dried cannabis flower, which average just over $10.00 CAD.
Cannabis and CBD Vape Cartridges
Last, but definitely not least, are cannabis vape cartridges. Despite recent issues surrounding vaping in the US, this is one of the cannabis products that is expected to be well-received by Canadian consumers.
Of course, medical cannabis patients have had access to these products for quite some time in the form of CBD vape pens. Last November, Aurora Cannabis got the green light from Health Canada to launch a line of vape-ready full-spectrum CBD products under the brand "Aurora Cloud."
Now that these products are rolling into the recreational market, other pot companies are jumping on the vape bandwagon and developing their own products for this sector.
Earlier this year, vape industry giant PAX Labs partnered with Aphria Inc. (TSX:APHA) (NYSE:APHA), Aurora Cannabis, Organigram Holdings Inc. (TSX:OGI) (NASDAQ:OGI), and The Supreme Cannabis Company, Inc. (TSX:FIRE) (OTCQX:SPRWF) to develop products for the Canadian market.
Then there is Westleaf Inc. (TSXV:WL) (OTCQB:WSLFF), which is already ahead of the game after receiving a standard processing license from Health Canada for its large-scale cannabis extraction, processing, and product formulation facility last month.
Consumers and investors alike will want to keep an eye out for all of the new, exciting cannabis products hitting the market in the coming months.
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