Canada Cannabis Spot Index (CCSI)
Published April 12, 2019
The CCSI moved higher by 2.5% to C$7.11 per gram, from last week’s C$6.94 per gram. This week’s price equates to US$2,418 per pound at current exchange rates.
The hype around cannabis legalization and the tax revenues that would pour into federal and provincial coffers seems to be slowly fading. Several provinces are restating their future revenue projections from this highly publicized new source of tax revenue.
The Ontario budget, released on Thursday, gave some new insight into the current state of the legal cannabis market in the province. Ontario, with 38% of the country’s population and an estimated 1.8 million cannabis users, cut their projected revenue from cannabis excise taxes to C$80 million from C$115 million for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. The cut reflects a black market still thriving due to volatile supply, limited retail locations, and higher than expected prices at the counter in the legal market. In reaction to the revised budget, Ontario politicians are engaging more deeply with Premier Doug Ford’s government and introducing changes to how cannabis is sold across the province to increase sales in the legal market.
The U.S. is closely monitoring the evolution of these markets in Canada and the Canadian case study could play a formative role in how some states move forward.