Medical cannabis patients have a new option to buy bulk and reduce the amount of packaging their medicine comes in.
On Wednesday, Hexo Corp. (TSX and NYSE: HEXO) launched a 30-gram bulk product of the company’s Tsunami dried flower strain.
Because all products need to meet Health Canada’s packaging regulations, buying more weed in a single bag produces less packaging waste than buying several smaller packages for the same overall amount of cannabis.
Offering bulk to medical patients is an “important step on Hexo’s sustainability journey,” the company said in a press release.
Sustainability has been a stumbling block for the regulated market.
Hexo Corp. press photo
Under the Cannabis Act, packaging needs to be opaque, child-resistant and water proof. This has lead many companies to use plastic packaging instead of biodegradable materials. Some recycling programs exist for cannabis packaging, like TerraCycle which recycles any licensed producer’s packaging, as well as vape products made by Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX: WEED).
Other packaging can be recycled in Ontario’s curb-side pickup, according to the Ontario Cannabis Store.
But buying bulk remains the leading way to reduce packaging.
“We know our medical clients have been waiting for this opportunity to purchase a higher volume of cannabis without excess packaging,” Hexo CEO and co-founder Sebastien St-Louis said in the release.
The company offers medical patients free shipping and absorbs the cost of the excise tax on all orders, St-Louis added.
So far, the 30-gram bag is only available for medical users but not for regular adult users.
The fruity indica-dominant strain is a Northern Lights variant with a 20–26 per cent THC kick and less than 1 per cent CBD potency, according to BC Cannabis. But more strains will be added to the 30-gram format soon, St-Louis said.
In October 2019, Hexo launched a bulk 28-gram format for recreational users. The bigger bag of weed continues to go for $140 for 28 grams, or $5 per gram, which was around $0.60 cheaper than the price-per-gram of the unregulated market, according to self-submitted data collected by Statistics Canada.
Read more: Hexo’s black market-disrupting cannabis Original Stash hits shelves on Black Friday
The “quality weed at legit prices,” was designed to disrupt the unregulated market, St-Louis said in an October statement. “Consistent, reliable and controlled products like this can play a major role in achieving the goals we set out nationally by legalizing cannabis just over a year ago: eliminating the illicit market and protecting public health and safety.”
Top image by Lëa-Kim Châteauneuf via Wikimedia Commons
michelle@mugglehead.com
@missmishelle
