Canadian Cannabis Growers Have Destroyed Millions of Pounds of Pot

Canadian cannabis growers have destroyed a record amount of legal marijuana in recent years, removing products that were either too old or too low in quality to meet regulatory standards for public sale.

Some 3.7 million pounds of pot have been destroyed since Canada legalized weed in 2018, industry publication MJBizDaily reported on Monday, citing data from Health Canada, which regulates the market.

A record 1.7 billion pounds of unsold edibles, extracts, flower and other cannabis products were destroyed during 2022 and in the first six months of last year, the most recently available data shows.

Canada health regulators require operators to destroy cannabis by either incinerating it, turning it into compost or mixing it with kitty litter, according to industry publication High Times.

Crop losses, disposal of unusable plant material like stalks, product recalls and unsold goods are some of the reasons that caused the unprecedented destruction, Health Canada spokesperson Tammy Jarbeau told High Times.

Just 11.5 million grams, or 25,355 pounds, of cannabis products were destroyed in 2018, compared with 265 million grams, or more than 584,000 pounds, in the first half of 2023, according to MJBizDaily. A record 611.7 million grams, or more than 1.3 million pounds, were destroyed in 2022, the data shows.

“It’s likely low-quality material with no value,” cannabis industry consultant Farrell Miller told the publication. “As consumers become more savvy with packaging dates on dried cannabis products, this trend will only continue.”

Recreational marijuana is now legal in 26 U.S. states, but it’s still illegal on a federal level. President Joe Biden has asked the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services to consider rescheduling pot from a Schedule 1 drug, which is treated like heroin or other hard drugs with a high potential for abuse, to a Schedule 3 drug. That would essentially decriminalize marijuana, treating it on par with prescription drugs like codeine, in the U.S. But lobbyists say the process could take years.