Statistics Canada has found that the price of marijuana has gone up since it became legal on October 17 and it costs less to buy cannabis from an illegal dealer.
A Stats Canada report showed the average price of a gram jumped by 17.4 per cent from $6.83 before legalization to $8.02 after it became legal. The federal agency said that from October 17 to December 31, the average price paid for cannabis from legal suppliers was $9.70 a gram, which was higher than $6.51 for a gram sold by illegal suppliers.
The report also showed that roughly half of the individuals who responded to a survey purchased cannabis from a legal supplier. Stats Canada added the average quantity purchased from legal suppliers was 8.3 grams compared to 17.2 grams bought from illegal suppliers. That's more than double the amount of cannabis purchased through legal methods.
The data also indicated that males are more likely to purchase cannabis from a legal supplier than females, with 49.8 per cent of men buying from legal producers compared with 41.6 per cent of females.
Males were also found to purchase in larger quantities from both legal and illegal sources but males and females combined bought more pot from illegal sources than legal ones.
Statistics Canada also said that 7.7 per cent of survey respondents purchased cannabis for the first time following legalization on October 17.