The Canadian government has moved to open up the cannabis more and more since Canada medical cannabis market was first legalized in 2001, and the country has a robust medical cannabis market. The Canadian government passed the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulation (MMPR) in 2013 to revamp the outdated medical cannabis system. In April 2014, MMPR official replaced the previous Marijuana Medical Access Regulations. With the new law, Canada established a licensing program that allowed authorized producers to produce and market dried or fresh cannabis flower, and cannabis oil, to Canadians with the required medical documentation. The new law did provide guidelines for individuals to continue to grow cannabis for their own personal use and framework for transitioning providers from the old medical cannabis regulations to the new.

As of December 2021, there were 257,059 Canadians who were registered to purchase medical cannabis from licensed cannabis producers. About 140,000 were in Ontario, 45,000 in Alberta, 18,000 in Quebec and 15,000 in British Columbia. These Canadians receive their medical cannabis either through the post or through private couriers. Additionally, more than 42,000 Canadians are registered through Health Canada to produce a limited amount of cannabis for their own medical use.

Recent highlights

  • The number of medical client registrations with federally licensed sellers fell 20% from 321,539 in December 2020 to 257,059 in December 2021.
  • The number of individuals registered with Health Canada for personal and designated cultivation of cannabis for their own medical purposes fell 4% from 43,680 in December 2020 to about 42,000 in December 2021.
  • For the December 2021 reporting period in total 715,522 packaged units of cannabis products were sold across Canada for medical purposes. Dried cannabis and edible forms sales represented about 32% of total sales each and cannabis extracts sales represented 35%.
  • Medical cannabis patients spent $224 million on cannabis in the second half of 2021, down from $294 million in the second half of 2020 and 29% lower than the record $316 million spent in the final six months of 2017, according to MJBizDaily.

Canada Medical Cannabis Market Infographics





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