This week’s CCSI report analyzes household expenditure data for cannabis collected by the Canadian Government, and compares it to that for alcoholic beverages and tobacco.
Despite speculation that cannabis legalization might cut into sales of the other product categories, all three have seen steady to slightly rising sales for the past three years.
Cannabis has significant room for growth, as spending in the legal recreational market made up only 11% of the 2019 spend on all three product categories combined. Additionally, the illicit market still received 71% of all Canadian cannabis spending in 2019. The legal adult-use market has consistently taken market share from the illegal market since its opening in October 2018, but at a decreasing rate each quarter.
The introduction of Cannabis 2.0 products could kickstart the illegal-to-legal conversion, especially as they become more prevalent.
