While efforts to legalize recreational cannabis nationally have stalled in the United States, New Zealand, Mexico and Israel, Canada’s legal market continues to evolve.
Health Canada has recently been receiving suggestions for revising its cannabis product regulations. Now it must decide what changes to make.
One priority should be giving producers more packaging and labeling flexibility. This could help businesses build their reputations and help consumers find suitable products. It would also better support federal cannabis policy, as existing rules inadvertently encourage higher potency while sidelining other aspects of quality.
Restrictive rules
Current packaging regulations restrict each cannabis container to a single non-fluorescent color. It cannot have any photos or images beyond one small brand logo.
Labeling is likewise limited. The producer and product name must appear, along with the THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol) levels. Other cannabinoids and terpenes can optionally be reported, but little else. No stories about how the plants were grown, no suggestions regarding the product’s uses or effects.
The result is mostly generic-looking packages. That’s intentional: governments don’t want non-users being tempted by the stuff. But there are some unintended side-effects.
Negative effects
For one thing, the plainness makes it harder for producers to distinguish themselves from competitors and establish brand reputations. They consequently have less incentive to improve product quality and more reason to compete by lowering prices instead.
By contrast, retailers can design their stores to stand out. Displaying artwork, painting everything purple, or mimicking Scandinavian spas can attract customers who like the ambience.
Minimalist labels meanwhile cause problems for consumers by making it tougher to understand new products or compare them to familiar favorites. The labels also focus extra attention on what little information is present: the THC and CBD numbers. Those get viewed as indicators of overall quality, where more implies better.
THC overemphasis
Indeed, many producers believe high THC sells products, even if they know some less potent ones are more enjoyable. One major brand recently announced it will only offer cannabis containing at least 20 percent THC.
Retailers see similar THC preferences. The Ontario Cannabis Store sells 73 times as much cannabis online in the over-20 percent category as it does in the 12-to-17 percent range.
But while THC is important, it isn’t everything. Cannabis contains at least 85 cannabinoids and 27 terpenes that create its effects and aromas. Defining products just by THC and CBD content is too simplistic.
Besides, bigger is not always better. One study found users got similar effects from smoking cannabis with either 16 or 24 percent THC. In a cannabis-growing contest last year, only one of the six gold medallists contained more than 20 percent THC. And other research suggests many consumers don’t really understand THC numbers anyway.
Canada’s labeling rules didn’t create this THC overemphasis. But they do worsen it.
For an analogy, consider automobiles. If automakers could only advertise horsepower, I suspect they’d mostly sell muscle cars.
More flexibility
To reduce these problems, Health Canada should let producers more…
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