From March 2020 to February 2021, sales totaled $2.5-billion, double the $1.25-billion of the previous 12 months.
Some commentators later walked back their claims after it became clear there was no data to support them, but the narrative still persists.
The number of licensed stores grew rapidly after Canada legalized recreational cannabis in October 2018.
Nationwide monthly sales began at $42-million in October 2018 and still totalled only $59-million in March 2019.
We know sales growth was partly related to store growth, but product selection also widened as more producers and product formats entered the market.
Our multidisciplinary research team analyzed monthly per capita recreational cannabis sales, both nationally and provincially, using Statistics Canada data from March 2019 to February 2021.
Many stores were frantically busy for a few days as people stocked up before lockdowns began, but those brief surges apparently were counterbalanced by quieter days afterwards.
Our calculations revealed a modest acceleration in month-over-month sales growth in 2020.
Overall, we didn’t see any pandemic-related cannabis sales gains big enough to worry regulators or to interest economists.
It’s important to understand why cannabis sales grew, because Canadian regulators need to understand the increase was an industry feature, not a pandemic side effect.
Between 2018 and 2020, the percentage of Canadians who self-reported using cannabis rose to 20 per cent from 14 per cent.