On October 17, 2018, Canada legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Since then, the cannabis industry has been growing especially during 2020. In fact, the green industry was positioned as the most prosperous in the country during the pandemic.
According to data from the study carried out by Trading Platforms, the cannabis industry in Canada has been the one that registered the highest growth in terms of GDP in 2020, with an increase of 49.5% over 2019.
Of the six sectors that grew in 2020 in the country, cannabis ranked first with a significant difference over the following five: agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, finance and insurance.
In fact, sales of legal cannabis doubled after its first year.
During the first three months after legalization, retail sales of recreational cannabis worthed 150 million Canadian dollars (around 101 million euros), tripling the job offers related to cannabis. In their first full year, they reached almost 1.2 billion Cannadian dollars, but the biggest boost was in 2020, when the figure doubled to 2.62 billion Cannadian dollars (about 1.77 billion euros).
According to the same report, in December 2020, monthly marijuana sales reached their highest value, at 298 million Canadian dollars, more than the double of the 2019 figure and about 10% higher than the previous high of 270 million Cannadian dollars, established in October 2020.
Marijuana was already a widespread alternative to traditional medicine in Canada before it got legalized. Its medicinal use, legalized in the country since 2001, has been used by hundreds of thousands of Canadians to overcome sleep disorders, depression and anxiety disorders.
