Canadian household spending on legal cannabis in the second quarter of the year outpaced the illicit market for the first time, marking a significant milestone for the licensed pot industry.
Statistics Canada said Friday that Canadian household spending on recreational cannabis reached $648 million in the second quarter of 2020, an increase of 74 per cent from the same period last year. Meanwhile, spending on medical cannabis was flat at $155 million in the second quarter, StatsCan said.
Canadian household spending on illicit cannabis fell to a new low of $784 million in the second quarter, StatsCan added. Taken together, the legal cannabis market now accounts for 50.5 per cent of all pot-related spending in Canada.
"The progress is there and there's more progress to come," George Smitherman, chief executive officer at the Cannabis Council of Canada, told BNN Bloomberg in a phone interview.
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