CBC News 10 July 2019
Family First Comment: “..there will likely always be a gap between legal and illegal drugs, mainly because the legal stuff has a host of added expenses that increases the cost of doing business. There’s an excise tax built in. Then, depending on the province, there’s GST and HST on top of that. There’s compliance costs that legal cannabis producers have that the illicit market doesn’t have to worry about. Add it all up and there’s quite a cost disadvantage.”
Statistics Canada’s quarterly report on cannabis prices suggests the cost chasm between legal and illegal versions of the drug is wide, and getting wider.
The data agency reported Wednesday that the price gap between the two types of cannabis is as wide as $4.72 a gram, on average.
Canada legalized recreational cannabis last October, but the rollout across the country has been plagued by delays, limited supply, and other logistical issues.
StatsCan has been asking Canadian cannabis users to tell them about how often they use the drug, and what they pay for it when they do, and the data paints an illuminating picture of a part Canadian society that used to operate solely in shadows.
Based on 572 voluntary responses the data agency deemed credible in the second quarter, StatsCan said the illegal version of the price fell from $6.23 per gram on average, at the start of the year, to $5.93 a gram in the three months up to the end of June.
Legal cannabis, meanwhile, went from $10.21 per gram to $10.65. That means the gap between the two is now as wide as $4.72 a gram.
READ MORE: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cannabis-prices-1.5206554
