VICE published a report indicating that Canadians spent well over $1.6 billion on legal cannabis products this past year. It's no secret, Canada's Federal Government elected to pass on legislation effectively ended the prohibitive status of recreational cannabis, in conjunction with a plan to control the substance at its point of purchase. State-sponsored kiosks have been up and running for months now, with the end goal of disrupting the shadow economy.
The legislative move, sprung by Justin Trudeau Liberal Government, has been met with both suspicion and elation, depending on whom you ask. Canadians are nevertheless taking the bait on the conventional switch, by doubling their weed expenditures from $755 million in 2017 to the aforementioned $1.6 billion sales figured amassed in 2018. Consider the following: 2017's gross revenue solely reflects spending for medically-licensed products, whereas sales in 2018 encompass the net revenue from dispensaries, pushing Canada to 3rd Worldwide in legal weed consumption.
In 2017 alone, before weed was legalized, the $755 million in medical sales only accounted for $5.7 billion in total spending, mostly generated by the black market. The very same report which has published all of these findings estimates that legal spending will increase to $7.8 billion by the year 2022 (in Canada), by which the Global trade markup is expected to hit $41.9 billion within the same timeframe.