Canadian cannabis industry on pace to see record number of federal licenses revoked this fiscal year, the request of the companies themselves

Health Canada. revoked 42 licenses during the first six months of the current fiscal year – April through September – putting the industry on pace to surpass the 74 that were revoked in the 2022-23 fiscal year.

In 2021-22, 50 licenses were revoked, more than double the previous year’s 22.

Only three cannabis business licenses were revoked in 2019-20 – the first full fiscal year of adult-use legalization.

The revocations are partly the outcome of a hotly competitive, oversaturated recreational industry still in search of equilibrium and struggling medical cannabis-focused companies, industry sources say.

While most of this year’s revocations are at the request of the respective businesses, a small number were revoked in previous years because of regulatory noncompliance.

Businesses are also allowing an increasing number of federal cannabis licenses to expire.

Only three-quarters through 2023, 14 such permits already have expired.

In all of 2022-23, 11 licenses expired.

“It is worth noting that most of the licenses that were revoked, were revoked at the request of the license holder,” a Health Canada spokesperson told MJBizDaily International Editor Matt Lamers.