Canada’s emerging legal cannabis industry sold C$414.1 million worth of cannabis products in March 2024, up 7.1% compared to February 2024. Canada first legalized adult-use cannabis sales in October 2018.
“The sales were up just 1.9% from a year ago. This was down from the 19.8% August growth rate and up from the lowest annual growth rate (in January) since legalization commenced of 1.6%. In 2023, total sales increased 12.5% to C$5.09 billion, and in 2024 they have increased just 3.2% from a year ago.” New Cannabis Ventures stated in its initial reporting.
According to data that was recently published by Statistics Canada, “In 2023, more than one-third of adults aged 18 to 24 years (38.4%) and 25 to 44 years (34.5%) reported using cannabis in the previous 12 months, compared with 15.5% of adults aged 45 years and older.”
Statistics Canada also found that 8.7% of adults aged 18 to 24 years and 10.3% of adults aged 25 to 44 years report consuming cannabis daily or almost daily.
Additionally, “over two in three” cannabis consumers bought their cannabis from regulated sources according to government data. Statistics Canada estimates that the nation is home to “more than 3,000 legal cannabis stores.”
According to survey data, Statistics Canada found that “the main reasons reported for buying cannabis from a legal source were product safety (38.0%), convenience (16.9%) and a desire to follow the law (12.9%).”
Cannabis flower is the top selling product in Canada’s legal market, accounting for 64.9% of total industry sales. Total sales of recreational cannabis by provincial cannabis authorities and other retail outlets increased 15.8% in the 2022/2023 fiscal year, reaching a total of $4.7 billion in sales. The sales of ‘inhaled extracts,’ or concentrates, increased by 59% during the 2022/2023 fiscal year.
Canada continues to dominate the legal global medical cannabis export sector, with Canadian cannabis companies exporting a reported 218 million Canadian dollars ($189 million) worth of medical cannabis products to other nations in fiscal year 2023/2024.
“That’s an increase of more than 36% from the previous year’s exports of CA$160 million.” stated MJBiz Daily in its initial reporting. MJBiz Daily reports that in previous fiscal years, Canada exported the following amounts of legal medical cannabis products:
- CA$8 million in 2019-20
- CA$39 million in 2020-21
- CA$107 million in 2021-22