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Quebec’s cannabis retailers are struggling to get by on their own supply.

Last October, mere days after Quebec opened its first chain of dispensaries, the government-run stores were so overrun with demand that they ran out of weed. Repeatedly.

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As an emergency measure, the Société Québécoise du Cannabis decided to open its dispensaries only four days a week. And for the foreseeable future, that’s how it will remain, according to the SQDC.

“Supply is still a challenge,” said SQDC spokesperson Fabrice Giguère. “We’ll only be able to open seven days a week when our supply can justify that. Right now it can’t.”

Meanwhile, Canada’s largest growers are ramping up production and dramatically increasing their Quebec-bound shipments. Between October and December, Canopy Growth saw a 66-per-cent jump in the amount of cannabis it sent to Quebec.

“It wasn’t a big shock to us that we were selling out at the beginning,” said Jordan Sinclair, a spokesperson for Canopy Growth. “We’re only producing at a small fraction of our total footprint because the (federal) licensing process has taken so long.”