Canadian Recreational Cannabis Sales Reached a Record CA$4.5 Billion in 2022
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Cannabis consumers in Canada spent a record $4.52 billion Canadian dollars on legal recreational products last year, according to new sales data from Statistics Canada.
The most prosperous month was December 2022, when consumers spent $425,871 on cannabis goods.
The 2022 total is a 17.9% increase on the previous year’s revenue sum, CA$3.83 billion.
This rise in cannabis revenue has largely been attributed to Canada’s growing number of physical dispensaries. According to MJBiz Daily, the country now has around 3,700 cannabis stores and retail licenses. Around 1,700 of these stories are in Ontario, Canada's most populous province.
But the rate of new store openings in Ontario peaked in mid-2021, according to the province’s Alcohol and Gaming Commission, and fewer and fewer dispensaries opened as 2022 went on.
As such, some industry analysts believe that Canada’s days of ever-increasing cannabis sales may now be over unless new revenue avenues, such as consumption lounges, are explored.
