Canadian consumers are spending money on legal pot like never before, with sales of legal cannabis outpacing those of black market sales for the first time.
Statistics Canada reported Monday that spending on recreational cannabis grew to $648 million in the second quarter of 2020, a whopping 74-percent increase over the same quarter last year. And what’s more, medical cannabis consumption also grew in the last quarter, climbing to $155 million.
Those two sectors combined equalled sales of $803 million, exceeding the black market total of $785 million by $18 million.
At $962 million dollars in black market sales during the same quarter last year, the most recent numbers show an 18-percent plunge year-over-year, or a decline of $177 million dollars.
Meanwhile, the legal cannabis sector is also growing in terms of GDP, climbing by $657 million between May and June, to reach $9.434 billion, a gain of 7.49 percent.