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Mark Zekulin captured the gist of the problem facing the country’s cannabis industry with a single comment during Thursday morning’s conference call with financial analysts.

“The Canadian market is six to 12 months behind where we thought it would be,” said Canopy Growth’s chief executive. “Sales of recreational cannabis are not living up to expectations,” he noted.

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That much was obvious in the company’s second quarter results ended Sept. 30 — three months in which Canopy Growth recorded unexpectedly weak revenues of $76.6 million, down from $90.5 million in the first quarter ended June 30.

The reasons for the decline were many, and produced a number of knock-on effects, including a net second-quarter loss of $374.6 million compared with $330.6 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

News of Canopy Growth’s ugly quarter triggered a 17-per-cent decline the company’s share price, which hovered just a shade above $20 on the TSX in early morning trading. This compared with the peak of nearly $71 per share, reached during the euphoria surrounding the legalization of recreational marijuana on Oct. 17, 2018.