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After only nine days of operations, the Société québécoise du cannabis announced on Friday that a lack of supply has forced it to reduce the operating hours of its 12 sales outlets to four days a week.

Beginning Monday and until further notice, the dozen SQDC stores in Quebec will be closed Monday to Wednesday and open during scheduled operating hours from Thursday to Sunday.

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The decision to reduce the operating schedule came after supply problems — present from the day the stores opened on Oct. 17 — grew increasingly worse throughout the week.

As of Friday morning, more than 50 of the 68 products listed for sale on the SQDC’s website were out of stock. The agency hopes the new schedule will allow outlets to “stabilize” their inventories.

The SQDC said its online store will remain open, with an average of about 30 products available. Delivery will take about two to five days.

The agency said there are cannabis supply problems across the country. It said it has signed supply agreements of three years or longer with producers and placed orders to meet the expected demand for cannabis in the first trimester of its operations. The SQDC said cannabis producers have a “colossal” job ahead of them to fill the orders it has placed.