Canadian Cannabis Market Trending Upward
September 30, 2025The adult-use cannabis market in Canada has gained traction recently, with Canadians spending $1.2 billion (C$1.7b) on the category in the second quarter of this year. For Q2, Canada’s adult-use market generated $1.15 billion (C$1.6b), with medical sales adding $85.5 million (C$119m). Overall, sales were up about 5% in the first half of the year. This growth comes as the country’s black market continues to fade, with consumers purchasing more legal cannabis in Q2 2025, than ever purchased illicit cannabis, which peaked at $1.1 billion (C$1.4b) in 2005, according to industry analytics firm Stratcann.
According to Statistics Canada and Stratcann, the legal cannabis industry contributed roughly $6.47 billion (C$9b) to the country’s GDP in the first quarter of this year. While acknowledging that some months have shown declines, the data from Statistics Canada and Stratcann shows that the overall market has generally swung upward, with the retail sector in particular growing over the summer.
In addition, research from the International Cannabis Policy Study shows that Canadian consumers are increasingly reaching for legal cannabis over black market alternatives. The data, based on information collected in 2022 and 2023, shows that each year a substantially large share of cannabis consumers chose to buy from regulated dispensaries. In 2021, just over half of Canadian cannabis consumers purchased through legal channels. By 2023 that percentage had risen to 73%.
While the switch to legal sources isn’t uniform across form factors—drinks and capsules are more commonly purchased in regulated dispensaries and hash and concentrates more often come from illicit sources—the growth and maturation of the legal industry has helped bring prices closer to parity with illicit sources. For flower, the average price per gram is now around $4.13 (C$5.75), only $1.07 (C$1.49) more than a gram on the black market.—Shane English
Tagged : Canada, canadian sales, cannabis
