Regulated cannabis sales in BC: 2018-2020
Recreational cannabis was first legalised on October 17, 2018, with the addition of edible products one year later. In BC, cannabis is distributed through direct government online and retail stores and through licensed private retailers who purchase cannabis at wholesale prices from the government; online sales through private retailers has recently been allowed. The objectives of CISUR’s report, Sales and Revenue from Regulated Cannabis Products: British Columbia (October 2018-December 2020) are to present patterns of BC government cannabis sales, per capita consumption, potency and price in the province overall and by health authority area. This report and the charts below do not include information about the unregulated market.
All data were obtained from the Liquor and Cannabis Distribution Branch of the BC provincial government. Data included sales of all unique cannabis products sold as wholesale product to private retailers, retail sales through BC government outlets, and internet retail sales through the BC online store. To allow cross-product comparisons, results are presented in terms of the weight of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Read more in the data and methods section in the report.
Flower products are far and away the most popular type of cannabis product sold in terms of both dollar amounts and per capita grams of THC and have been since the beginning of legalization. Extracts and concentrates surpassed pre-roll products in terms of dollar amounts sold in December 2019, but pre-rolls account for more per-capita THC sales.
Note: dollar amounts include government retail and wholesale to private retailers.
Sales by Health Authority
In 2020, Interior Health accounted for the largest amount of monthly sales in dollars, however Northern Health had the highest levels of per capita THC sales.
Sales by outlet type
As of December 2020, there were over 10 times as many private retail cannabis outlets as government stores.
Given this fact, it is unsurprising that private retail outlets outsold government stores both in terms of dollar amounts and per-capita grams of THC.
However, when we look at grams of THC sold per physical retail outlet, individual government stores outsell private stores almost 2:1.
Cannabis potency
The mean potency of flower and pre-rolled cannabis products, which make up the bulk of legal cannabis sales, has increased since legalization. Looking at sales-weighted data, consumers tended to purchase more potent products. For example, median potency of flower products weighted by sales was 17% in October 2018, rising to nearly 20% in December 2020.
Flower and pre-roll products also got cheaper per 5mg THC unit, both in terms of overall median prices and sales-weighted data. This was true for both government wholesale and retail products, with the median government retail price per 5mg THC falling from $0.22 in October 2018 to $0.13 in December 2020.