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Canada Finally Surpassed $1 Billion in Total Legal Weed Sales
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As supply shortages turn into supply surpluses, Canadian cannabis companies are selling more legal weed than ever before, but worries about an uncertain future still persist.
Published on February 26, 2020

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After months of slow industry growth, it appears that Canada’s cannabis market is finally looking up. 

According to the latest report from Statistics Canada and a follow-up breakdown by the Motley Fool, the Great White North’s legal weed industry had its two most successful sales months to date in November and December of 2019. More than $100 million in pot was sold in November, and more than $110 million worth of weed was sold in December.

In total, the new sales numbers pushed Canada past $1 billion in legal weed sales since nationwide legalization kicked off in October 2018.

When Canada first opened online pot shops and brick and mortar dispensary doors, the nation’s few licensed weed brands were struggling to grow enough bud to supply rising demand. But as time passed, more cultivators came online, and others began to amass supply reserves, Canada’s pot drought disappeared. In addition to seeing increased strain variety and price points on dispensary shelves, the supply bump was bolstered by the late addition of cannabis products like edibles, vape cartridges, and concentrates, which were not initially available to Canadian consumers.

And so while it took Canada’s legal weed industry six months before it eclipsed the $50 million per month mark, the market has seen growth in every month since then — with the last two months of 2019 more than doubling the sales totals from the same months in 2018.

But just because bud is finally flying off dispensary shelves doesn’t mean that Canada’s cannabis woes are actually in the rearview. In fact, since major cannabis producers like HEXO and OrganiGram have now seen supply far outpace demand, and have had to close down available grow sites and lay off employees. Additionally, a number of Candian provinces are still home to huge discrepancies in cannabis access, with some residents still living hours away from the closest dispensary.

So while Canada appears to have dug itself out of its initial cannabis supply hole, the benefits are huge for customers, who no longer need to fear pot shops selling out of product or charging exorbitant prices. But for Canadian pot producers, the swing from shortage to surplus is still causing issues, even if sales numbers are higher than ever before.

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Zach Harris is a writer based in Philadelphia whose work has appeared on Noisey, First We Feast, and Jenkem Magazine. You can find him on Twitter @10000youtubes complaining about NBA referees.
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