Legal Cannabis Sales Spike In Canada As Alcohol Sales Plummet
Canada was the second country to adopt a national recreational cannabis legalization law and remains the most robust nationwide legal adult-use cannabis market on the planet. Uruguay legalized cannabis before Canada, however, Uruguay continues to limit adult-use cannabis commerce to legal residents.
The legal adult-use market in Canada is the best recreational cannabis commerce experiment for public policy and economic researchers for a multitude of reasons. The data generated in Canada provides insight into what other nations may expect if/when they adopt a similar legalization model.
One thing that the data is demonstrating in Canada is that legal cannabis sales continue to erode the unregulated cannabis market, and paralleling the rise in cannabis sales is a drop in sales of alcohol products. Below is more information about the sales trends via a news release from NORML:
Ottawa, Ontario: Sales of alcohol and cannabis in Canada are on opposite trajectories, according to data provided by Statistics Canada, the national statistical agency of the Canadian government.
For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, sales of alcoholic beverages experienced historic declines, with beer sales experiencing the largest overall decrease. In comparison, “Sales of recreational cannabis by provincial cannabis authorities and other retail outlets increased 11.6 percent or $0.5 billion from one fiscal year earlier, reaching $5.2 billion in 2023/2024.” Sales of cannabis products had previously grown nearly 16 percent in 2022/2023.
Canada legalized the adult-use marijuana market in 2018.
Separate data published in February in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reported that fewer young adults in the US acknowledge consuming alcohol following the opening of licensed marijuana retailers.
While survey data finds that many consumers acknowledge substituting marijuana for alcohol, observational data gathered from jurisdictions that have legalized cannabis is mixed – with some studies reporting dips in alcohol sales post-legalization and others reporting no significant changes at the population level.
Complete data sets are available from Statistics Canada.
