{"id":14764,"date":"2017-10-04T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T16:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=14764"},"modified":"2017-10-02T13:38:20","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T20:38:20","slug":"calculated-thought-examining-canadas-legal-marijuana-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2017\/10\/04\/calculated-thought-examining-canadas-legal-marijuana-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Calculated Thought<\/em>: Examining Canada\u2019s legal marijuana market"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 1, 2018 could mark the first day that adult Canadians will be able walk into a storefront and purchase cannabis legally, without a prescription.<\/p>\n

Governments, industry leaders, and the finance and economics folks are trying to figure out what the recreational marijuana industry in Canada is going to look like.<\/p>\n

Of course, the accountants had to crunch some numbers. Deloitte Canada\u2019s study surveyed 5,000 people from across Canada and collected the data: 22 percent of the population are current marijuana users and 17 percent \u201cmight\u201d partake if it were legal. Extrapolating on existing data from nations with legal recreational marijuana and using Canadian statistics on market price, Deloitte estimated the retail value of the industry to be between 4.9 and 8.7 billion dollars annually. To put that in perspective, Canadians spend about 21 billion dollars on alcohol every year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Calculated Thought<\/em> is a column dealing with student finances that is featured in every issue of Nexus<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But, will Canadians be lining up to buy cannabis?<\/p>\n

This is Canada\u2019s second regulated cannabis market, with medical marijuana legislation having being established in 2001. From 2015 to 2016, medical-marijuana clients tripled in number to a total of 100,000. Recent Statistics Canada data show that in April of this year over 170,000 clients were registered users, jumping to over 200,000 in June; that number is expected to reach 500,000 by 2021.<\/p>\n

Now, whether recreational usage statistics will follow is anyone\u2019s guess, but these data show that demand for cannabis is strong and growing. Reports show that producers can\u2019t keep up, causing supply shortages for medicinal users.<\/p>\n

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) estimates that demand for recreational and illicit marijuana will reach between 378 and 1,017 metric tons. The medicinal industry produces an estimated 80 metric tons currently. As legalization is nine months away, analysts question the ability to meet demand.<\/p>\n

Some argue the bullishness is overblown. If even top government bean-counters at the PBO have such a varying estimate, then what do we really know? Deloitte\u2019s estimate is based on survey information, and, while it could be statistically sound, it assumes that the legal market will completely replace the illicit market.<\/p>\n

A lot of questions remain unanswered. How will it be distributed, priced, and taxed?
\nThe Ontario government announced that it will sell marijuana under the existing framework of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), and Ontario\u2019s Finance Minister Charles Sousa has said that the province is considering a price of $10 per gram, citing intent to have uniformity in prices in Canada.<\/p>\n

BC Premier John Horgan voiced support for cannabis to be sold in private liquor stores in the province during his election campaign, but little has been reported on the province\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n

One thing is for sure: the industry will need people to fill the new jobs it creates.<\/p>\n

In response, southern Ontario\u2019s Niagara College has announced the first graduate certificate in commercial cannabis production, open to graduates in the field of agriculture, horticulture, and environmental studies.<\/p>\n

Could Camosun follow suit? Or, will islanders have to head east and brave the cold for their postgrad if they want to get in on this new industry?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 1, 2018 could mark the first day that adult Canadians will be able walk into a storefront and purchase cannabis legally, without a prescription. Governments, industry leaders, and the finance and economics folks are trying to figure out what the recreational marijuana industry in Canada is going to look like. Of course, the accountants […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,199],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-october-4-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14765,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14764\/revisions\/14765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}