Canada exported $1.2 billion worth of illegal cannabis in 2017
Not only do Canadians have a knack for growing pot, they’re also adept at sneaking it across the border, suggests a report from Statistics Canada.
Last year, about $1.2 billion worth of cannabis — or 20 per cent of Canada’s total weed production — was illegally sold outside the country, according to a provisional estimate released Thursday by the federal agency.
The figure was tucked into an economic report that is part of the agency’s broader effort to track Canada’s transition to a legalized recreational marijuana market.
With the federal government expected to legalize recreational pot as early as July, Statistics Canada is building up its capacity to collect and crunch data to monitor the eventual cannabis industry. The documents, some of which will be published quarterly, are designed to help inform governments on their social and economic policy decisions related to legalized weed.
But even within the black market, Canadians have proven to be highly proficient pot growers and exporters, the study suggested.
The agency estimated the illegal Canadian sales of the drug beyond the country’s borders last year amounted to $1.2 billion, which represented 20 per cent of Canada’s total production. By comparison, illegal pot exports were estimated at just two per cent of Canada’s overall production in 1961, the report said.
The agency stressed that all its estimates are subject to potentially large revisions because they rely heavily on assumptions.
Conrad Barber-Dueck, a Statistics Canada economist who worked on the report, said to come up with the export numbers researchers examined data such as consumption, domestic production, the size of the U.S. market, the Canadian share of the American market and seizure data at the border in both directions.
The export figures were key because they help researchers understand the possible impacts of the industry on Canada’s gross domestic product, he said.
“We need to know what’s going across the border, what’s coming in and that tells us the impact to GDP,” Barber-Dueck said.
The report lays out a number of additional estimates for spending, consumption and production.
The vast majority of cannabis consumed in Canada is grown in the country — to the point that the report found it was comparable to the domestic production of tobacco, beer and wine combined.
It estimated the pot-producing industry was worth $3.4 billion in 2014, while domestic tobacco production was $1 billion and alcohol production was $2.9 billion.
The agency estimated 4.9 million Canadians between 15 and 64 spent $5.7 billion on cannabis last year. The number was smaller than what households spent in 2016 on tobacco ($16 billion) and beer, wine and spirits ($22.3 billion).