These billion-dollar markets are making it impossible for their cannabis industries to thrive.

At this time last year, the cannabis industry looked as if it would be practically unstoppable. Canada had just become the first industrialized country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana, and Wall Street was throwing out huge estimates on future industry growth. In fact, earlier this year, investment bank Stifel forecast $200 billion in annual global sales by the end of the upcoming decade.

But as you’re probably aware, the cannabis industry hasn’t been delivering the green as expected. The North American pot industry has encountered a slew of growing pains, with supply issues in Canada, and tax issues in select U.S. states, wreaking havoc on pot stocks.

These states aren’t giving cannabis companies an opportunity to succeed

One the most front-and-center problems in Canada on the supply front has to do with the slow rollout of physical dispensaries in select provinces. For example, Ontario, a province with a population of 14.5 million, has a mere two dozen open retail dispensaries at the moment. That’s about one open dispensary for every 604,200 people in the province. By comparison, Oregon, which didn’t set limits on retail licensing, has an open dispensary for about every 5,600 people. [Read More @ The Motley Fool]