Volume of licensed (medical purposes) and unlicensed (non-medical purposes) cannabis consumed in Canada
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In 2001, the possession and consumption of cannabis for medical purposes was legalized. Individuals with a medical prescription were permitted to grow their own cannabis or purchase cannabis from Health Canada or from a licensed dealer. In late 2013, Health Canada began issuing licences to Canadian companies to produce and distribute cannabis to individuals holding a medical prescription. As evidenced by the MacDonald and Rotermann study, Canadians also consume cannabis for non-medical purposes. Currently this cannabis is obtained from unlicensed producers. Since the production and distribution of licensed and unlicensed cannabis is different, it is necessary to differentiate between the two markets. For the purposes of the CEA, cannabis produced, purchased and consumed under a medical document will be referred to as cannabis for medical purposes or licensed cannabis. Cannabis produced, purchased or consumed without possession of a medical document will be referred to as cannabis for non-medical purposes or unlicensed cannabis.
The first step in the construction of the CEA was to split the volume of cannabis consumed between cannabis purchased with a licence (cannabis for medical purposes) and cannabis purchased and consumed without a licence (cannabis for non-medical purposes). In order to develop this estimate, data were obtained from Health Canada that provided an estimate of the number of individuals registered with licensed producers in Canada in 2017, along with an estimate of the volume of cannabis sold to these registered clients. The volume of sales to registered clients (individuals with a medical document) in 2017 was divided by the total volume of cannabis consumed in 2017 to derive an estimate of the proportion of total cannabis that was consumed with a licence. For illustration, in 2017 it is estimated that Canadians consumed 56.5 metric tonnes of licensed cannabis. This represents 7% of the total 773 metric tonnes consumed in 2017. It was then assumed that this share has been trending upward since 2013 when it was estimated to be 3%. Prior to 2013, individuals who received a medical prescription to consume cannabis were required to grow their own cannabis or purchase it from Health Canada. It was assumed that 2% of the total cannabis consumed by Canadians was grown by individuals with medical documents or purchased from Health Canada. This estimate is based on information provided by Health Canada on the number of licensed individuals between 2001 and 2012.
The volume of licensed cannabis and unlicensed cannabis consumed in Canada can be represented by the following equations:
(2) Vlc = Vlc (56.5 metric tonnes)
(3) Vulc=Vc-Vlc = (773.4-56.5=716.9)
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