FYI #EconSky
Associate professor of operations research at Brock University. I teach quality improvement & game theory. I research the economic aspects of cannabis legalization. https://brocku.ca/goodman/faculty-research/faculty-directory/michael-armstrong/
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FYI #EconSky
"the rain deficit in southern Ontario was 70-90 per cent less than normal. But due to their deep roots, the vines at Perrault may be unaffected by the drought" 🍷 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
"there is little public accountability as to how the fund money is used ... the province’s Auditor-General confirmed to The Globe and Mail that it is investigating ... The Ford government has already invested $1.5-billion in the program" www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...
My @brocku.ca is seeking a new VP External who can coordinate with government, community, alumni, and global partners. Please apply by 3 Oct. www.kbrs.ca/Career/17546...
... but slightly more options for housing. 2/2 universityaffairs.ca/news/student...
A decline in international students means Ontario university students are finding fewer options for elective courses ... 1/2 universityaffairs.ca/news/slim-pi...
"There's a smart way to bring down [international student] numbers.... And frankly, right now we've stumbled into doing it a dumb way and it's gonna cost all of us," www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
"By the end of the summer, year-to-date Canadian visitation numbers to the U.S. had dropped about 25 per cent" and "the U.S. recorded a 17 per cent decline in European arrivals this past spring"
For Canadian cannabis stocks, "diversification and name selectivity will be especially important given the risks that have plagued the industry since its domestic legal inception seven years ago" www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/ma...
"Between January and June 2024, Canada issued 125,034 international study permits. Between January and June of this year, that fell to 36,417" A 71% drop in international students 👨🎓👩🎓will be very painful for Canadian universities & colleges. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Canadian border guards intercepted 349 kg of cocaine being smuggled from the US into Canada. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
This article isn't an example but it's on a related topic. theconversation.com/donald-trump...
My @brocku.ca colleague @timkenyon.bsky.social wrote about Trump's recent use of "bullshit rhetoric" against his own followers regarding the Epstein files.
Home sweet home. Welcome back, Badgers ❤️🦡
"Domestic wine sales rose 65 per cent in Ontario and 58 per cent in Quebec from last year. Homegrown whisky sales spiked in Alberta and Atlantic Canada" www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
FYI: If you're looking for beverages to drink or touristy places to visit in Canada, the Niagara region has many nice vineyards. winecountryontario.ca
"Travel and tourism is the largest single services export for the United States, accounting for 22 percent of the country’s services exports and 7 percent of all exports" www.trade.gov/travel-touri...
Analysts predict the U.S. will see 8% less foreign tourism in 2025, the only country among 184 to have a drop. Visits are down 19% from Denmark, 10% from Germany, & 6% from France. Visits from Canada in July by car fell 37%; by air fell 26%. #EconSky apnews.com/article/inte...
Brown‑Forman's "net sales in developed international markets dropped eight per cent" due to "geopolitical uncertainty". Sales fell 62% in Canada, 16% in the UK, & 10% in Germany. 🍷 #EconSky www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
"After generations of bottling the iconic Canadian whiskey brand Crown Royal, the Amherstburg plant owned by DIAGEO will cease operations in February 2026" www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
FYI #EconSky
"The Quebec liquor board may be forced to destroy $300,000 worth of American alcohol that the province has banned from stores. ... The $300,000 worth of stock represents only a small portion of the $27 million of American products in storage" www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
'the province said, “the crime rate near the Ottawa site was 250 per cent higher than the rest of the city.”' but police data show it 'was only 14 per cent higher'.
If it needs to cheat like that when giving you the Turing test, it clearly can't be very intelligent. 🙂
Canadian retail prices over the past 12 months fell 2.4% for recreational cannabis but rose 2.6% for alcohol & 1.3% for tobacco. Since Dec 2018, prices are down 30% for cannabis, but up 18% for alcohol & 45% for tobacco. Ref: StatsCan doi.org/10.25318/181...
"for the people and businesses who will suffer the consequences [of Trump's policies], the laws of economics will be anything but abstract" #EconSky www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...
Agree. I suppose that lets the journal & the author count it as a peer-reviewed "article" for their metrics?
And yes, the stock market valuations of AI firms are scary high. www.cbc.ca/news/busines...
AI can even make workers less effective. A study found that specialists got worse at detecting cancer by themselves after they had used AI for awhile. Apparently their skills decayed rather quickly. time.com/7309274/ai-l...
My university is hiring a Research Chair in Sustainable Agriculture for Grapes 🍇 & Wine 🍷. Please apply before 8 Sep. @brocku.ca @bufa.bsky.social brocku.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/brocku...
"Retail cannabis workers no longer require a criminal record check prior to employment, according to a policy change by Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis" www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
There are some really interesting (i.e., scary) studies of what happens when hedge funds buy hospitals in the U.S. 😬
Canadian border guards seized 197 kg of cocaine being smuggled into Canada from the US. That single seizure of cocaine going north is 7 times more than all the fentanyl that has been caught south of the border over the past six months. www.ctvnews.ca/london/artic...
I only began trying it (Copilot Chat) a month ago. I gave it several questions from my course assignments. It got most impressively right, but some wildly wrong. This fall I will tell students they can use it on assignments but recommend they use it as a tutor instead.
"As captagon labs have become less ubiquitous in Syria, the Houthis are producing the drug in Yemen themselves. Yemen’s long and relatively porous border with Saudi Arabia gives the Houthis access to a large consumer market" nationalinterest.org/blog/middle-...
... but harder to return the empty containers. "Where other provinces like B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan collect about 80 per cent of their empties, Ontario brings in only about half." www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Ontario's provincial government is making it easier for folks to drink more alcohol ... www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
"big box stores and large grocers recently began lobbying for the province to end its current ban preventing them from selling their own alcohol brands in their stores" www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
@bretdevereaux.bsky.social I don't know if this is 2007 study is any good, but the topic looks like it might interest you. "Measuring Ancient Inequality" www.nber.org/papers/w13550
"Even if the federal government renewed its funding, Ottawa Inner City Health and other Ontario programs wouldn't be allowed to apply without permission from the provincial government — a new rule in Ontario's Community Care and Recovery Act" www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
Your work is so exceptional that no mere mortal can hope to individually comprehend the magnificence of it all? 🙂
Thanks to @kathleenpetty.bsky.social & her CBC crew for bringing me on to their Alberta at Noon radio show today to discuss cannabis & alcohol sales.
"the suggestion that Canada is a major source of America’s fentanyl problem is simply not supported by the evidence. And it doesn’t justify economic penalties like tariffs" www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
"Overdoses at Toronto drop-in centres have surged from fewer than 10 per month before several supervised consumption sites closed in April, to more than 30 per month since then" www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
On 23 July at 14:05 MT I'll be joining Sarah Crosbie on @globalnews.ca radio CHQR to discuss cannabis & alcohol sales in Alberta.
"Booze sales down, weed sales up in Alberta" By Kevin Green www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/arti...
The link above is for a summary I wrote. The link below is to the academic study itself. doi.org/10.1111/ssqu...
FWIW, I worked with a military historian a few years ago to analyze the charge. We basically wanted to know if it could have succeeded if executed differently. theconversation.com/picketts-cha...
"Albertans drinking way less booze than they used to, lead the country in cannabis sales" By @robsonfletcher.com www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
FYI #EpiSky
Epi & med students might like this @bretdevereaux.bsky.social blog series. It highlights how ancient & medieval society was heavily influenced by death rates from what are now preventable diseases. #EpiSky acoup.blog/2025/07/11/c...
The Canadian Wine Library @brocku.ca "was developed to determine how Canadian wines age and provide producers with feedback based on results from scheduled tastings" brocku.ca/brock-news/2...
< Insert Wile E. Coyote meme here > 🙂
At 15:05 MT today I'll be chatting with radio CHED 880 Edmonton about cannabis legalization & alcohol sales. globalnews.ca/edmonton/pro...
My @brocku.ca colleague @bhaggart.bsky.social wrote about the futility of negotiating trade agreements with Trump. He ignores the ones he already signed, so why would we trust him on new ones? www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...
Maybe an MIT study? news.mit.edu/2025/explain...
Alcohol sales changed subtly after Canada legalized cannabis
Remember a few months back when Doug Ford said he'd do everything in his power to protect Ontario workers? Well here's at least 10,000 broken promises... www.thestar.com/news/ontario... #onpoli #canlab
"while modern science has many flaws, it is one of those few things we can point to as a society and say that this, this, is what already makes us great" FYI @bretdevereaux.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/scie...
This article summarizes my recent research on alcohol sales during the initial period after Canada legalized recreational cannabis. @ijdp.bsky.social @apsad-dar.bsky.social theconversation.com/alcohol-sale...
Could be. It's July. 😎 Previous person cleaning their files before being transferred out; or their new replacement doing the same upon arrival; or an acting replacement temporarily filling in for the regular person who's on summer leave.
So far this fiscal year, US border control has seized 3700 kg of fentanyl along the Mexican border, vs only 26 kg at the Canadian one. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
In Ontario, "Sales of Ontario wine have increased by over 60 per cent since the LCBO pulled American products off its shelves", whereas "total wine sales dropped by 13 per cent". www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
A @brockus.bsky.social PhD student wrote about how student-athletes use social media. They can create personal brands but risk emotional stress. theconversation.com/how-social-m...
Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome: "cyclic episodes of uncontrollable vomiting in cannabis users, often characterized by experiencing temporary relief with hot showers and baths" www.cbc.ca/news/health/...
Yet another study shows that Canada is not a major exporter of illegal fentanyl into the U.S. "99% of the pills and 97% of the powder were found along the border with Mexico; by comparison, large seizures along the Canadian border are relatively rare" manhattan.institute/article/fent...
Once upon a time, almost all Canadian beer bottles looked like these. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
The National Overdose Response Service "is like a buddy system — operators stay on the line as people use drugs, ready to alert emergency services if they suspect the person has overdosed" www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
We need your help! It's our eighth birthday and Canada is about to turn 158, so we have a lot to celebrate! In these troubled, divisive times, our accurate, independent journalism is more important than ever, so please consider a charitable donation: donate.theconversation.com/ca
Ontario's Conservative (?) government will soon allow pedal-pubs in Toronto, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ottawa & Windsor. I wish Premier Ford put as much effort into improving access to healthcare as he does for beer. 🍺 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
25% is the share of Canadians who have used cannabis in the past 12 months. If the U.S. bans anyone who has ever tried cannabis in their lifetime, then 63% of Canadians cannot visit the U.S. anymore.
The U.S. says it denied entry to a tourist because he used cannabis in countries where it is legal. This implies that 1/4 of Canadian adults can no longer visit the U.S. How will the U.S. economy react to a further 25% drop in tourism from Canada? www.marijuanamoment.net/feds-say-tou...
"Tests measure what students know, but also help build important life skills, education experts say" www.cbc.ca/radio/thecur...
"central banks managing a combined US $50 trillion plan to increase exposure to gold ... The dollar, the most popular currency in last year’s survey, fell to seventh place ... the euro and yuan stand to benefit the most" #EconSky www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/ar...
"big grocery is lobbying for Ontario to end its ban on supermarkets selling their own-brand alcohol products ... Small wineries in the province fear the consequences of lifting that ban" By @cbcqueenspark.bsky.social www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
FYI @bretdevereaux.bsky.social
From November 2024 (when Trump was elected) to April 2025, there has been a 788% increase in American doctors applying for licences to practice in Canada. mcc.ca/news/welcomi... via @medcouncilcan.bsky.social @alexmunter.bsky.social
I like short abstracts too, but disciplines vary. Medical journals often have 300-word (!) abstracts; the idea is that practicing MDs only read the abstract, so journals make it a mini-paper, & the main paper becomes almost an appendix.
"In April, Canada imported just $2.9-million of American wine – a decline of 94 per cent ... Imports from New Zealand and Australia have jumped by 31 per cent and 28 per cent" www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...
Why more youth are landing in the ER with vomiting from cannabis use
🚨 The Trump Administration's budget request calls for the repeal of a long-standing federal budget rider that prohibits the DOJ from using taxpayer dollars to prosecute patients and others involved in the state-legal medical cannabis industry. #NORML #marijuana #cannabis #trump #maga
ESPAD offers perhaps the first publicly available information on trends of #cannabis use among adolescents in Germany up to 2024. No increases (rather decreases) registered in: * lifetime or current cannabis use * perceived availability of cannabis * early onset of cannabis use
📢 🇨🇦 Participate in a Research Study on Substance Use Health and Stigma! Please share widely! 🔗 Take the survey here: cuhealth.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Good question; I will study that next. I suspect (?) there was a similarly small initial drop on legalization day, but a different trend thereafter.
5. Overall, it seems cannabis legalization had only slight initial impacts on alcohol use in Nova Scotia. Thanks to NSLC for sharing its sales data, and to Lisa Ferrantelli & Skander Lazrak for their help!
4. The differences persisted when considering similarly-sized shops, or the proximity of cannabis sellers to alcohol-only shops. The combination of sales drops & gains might reflect a mix of substitution, co-use, & store-switching by consumers.
3. Across NSLC stores that sold only alcohol, total monthly sales averaged roughly $800K ⬇️ lower than before legalization. But across those that began selling cannabis, monthly alcohol sales instead totaled $300K ⬆️ higher! Differences were bigger for 🍺 beers & coolers than 🍷 wines or spirits.
2. After legalization, total NSLC monthly alcohol sales quickly dropped & then slowly recovered. From Oct 2018 to Feb 2020, they averaged about $500K (1.2%) ⬇️ below pre-legalization levels.
1. My new study in @ijdrugpolicy.bsky.social examined how alcohol 💲 sales changed at Nova Scotia Liquor Corp stores during the first 17 months after Canada 🍁 legalized recreational cannabis in 2018. #EconSky #EpiSky @brocku.ca www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
"Montreal convention organizers say they’ve seen more than half a dozen events rescheduled to their city from the U.S., with Toronto reporting a similar trend." #AcademicSky www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
"A legendary Niagara vineyard is no more, but its legacy continues to inspire the future of the industry" By @waters-wine.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-an...
My @brocku.ca @brockufoss.bsky.social coworker Pascal Lupien wrote an article for @ca.theconversation.com describing ways Trump could try to remain U.S. president after his term ends. theconversation.com/how-donald-t...
"If the issue did leap to the top of the Australian political agenda, what lessons are there from countries including Canada, with a similar federal style of government, that has made the move to legal recreational use?" By Georgina Preston www.thecitizen.org.au/articles/dop...
"Several conferences relocate north of the border as Canadians refuse to travel to the U.S. ... in April, the number of return trips among Canadians travelling to the U.S. plummeted by 19.9 per cent for air travel, and by a jarring 35.2 per cent for land" #AcademicSky www.cbc.ca/news/busines...
My university is hiring a tenure-track assistant or associate professor in operations management, to start in 2026. Please apply by 15 Aug. @brocku.ca @bufa.bsky.social #AcademicSky brocku.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/brocku...
"the impact of legal pot has been pretty muted. Instead of reefer madness, more like reefer mildness. When it comes to the sight of cannabis, though, merchants are still stuck with laws that assume a glimpse of the demon weed will corrupt Canada’s youth" www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...
On 8 May 1942, aircraft carriers fought against each other for the first time in history in The Battle of the Coral Sea. The US repulsed the Japanese fleet but lost 1 carrier. However, the fight could easily have ended differently. theconversation.com/alternative-...
🚨Fantastic opportunity for #drugpolicy scholars! The International Society for the Study of Drug Policy @issdrugpolicy.bsky.social is looking for a new Vice President Been such an honor to serve in this role. If you're curious or have ?s, let me know Noms due 5/19 www.issdp.org/issdp-electi...
"Ontario alone has the biggest measles outbreak in North America. On a per-capita basis compared to the U.S., Ontario‘s outbreak is 21 times bigger."
"Mr. Ford and his Attorney-General, Doug Downey, have made their intentions clear: to put “like-minded” judges on the bench. In other words, judges that share their politics and prejudices." www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/toron...