Marijuana sales are increasing as purchases of alcohol are declining, according to a new federal report from the Canadian government.
Retailers in the country sold C$5.5 billion worth of legal recreational cannabis products in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, Statistics Canada reported, representing a 6.1 percent increase from the previous annual period.
Meanwhile, alcohol purchases were down 1.6 percent year over year, a dip that occurred despite a 1.6 increase in retail alcohol prices. The resulting decline in government revenue “was the largest annual decrease since Statistics Canada began tracking this series in 2004/2005,” the federal agency said.
While the C$25.8 billion worth of alcoholic beverages sold in the fiscal year still outpaces marijuana’s total, the two data points represent a trend where consumers are switching away from beer, wine and liquor toward cannabis, which is increasingly viewed as a safer alternative.
Even as marijuana sales in Canada increased in the last fiscal year, growth slowed, however, from the 11.6 percent increase in 2023-2024 and the 15.8 percent bump from 2022-2023. Still, the overall rise in cannabis purchase totals came even as prices dropped 1.1 percent over the last year.
Within the cannabis sector, inhaled extracts were the
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