The Canada Cannabis Spot Index was assessed at C$5.17 per gram this week, down 0.2% from last week’s C$5.18 per gram. This week’s price equates to US$1,860 per pound at the current exchange rate.
Each week, Business of Cannabis delivers a series of insights from our partners at Cannabis Benchmarks®.
This week, Cannabis Benchmarks look into the latest household expenditure data from Statistics Canada, issued quarterly.
The first thing to note from the data is that the total dollars spent on cannabis has been on a steady rise since legalization. Statistics Canada estimates a total of C$1.91B was spent on cannabis in Q2 2021 in both the legal medical and recreational markets, as well as the illicit market. This figure is 36% higher than the amount spent in the same quarter in 2018, which shows the increase in mainstream adoption of cannabis use since the onset of legalization.
In the chart above, Cannabis Benchmarks took the same dataset and split out the source and use of the cannabis sale. The chart shows that the legal recreational cannabis sector has been growing substantially over the past few years. The legal recreational market is not only taking market share from the illicit market but also growing overall cannabis expenditures. Statistics Canada estimates illicit recreational sales have fallen 9.7% to C$0.74B from Q2 2020 to Q2 2021. As legal recreational sales have grown to 55% of total cannabis purchases, legal medical sales and the number of medical clients actively registered with licensed producers have also declined.
Source: Canada Cannabis Spot Index, Cannabis Benchmarks
See previous weekly updates from Cannabis Benchmarks:
- A look at the pace of growth for cannabis retail
- A look at monthly cannabis sales in Ontario
- What is the optimal number of cannabis stores in Canada?
- How to compare daily cannabis retail sales by Province
- Understanding the impact of cannabis on alcohol sales in Canada
- A look at cannabis retail store count by Province
- A look at cannabis user statistics in Canada
