As reported by Statistics Canada, in the 2021-2022 fiscal year the Canadian government collected 1.5 billion Canadian dollars (more than 1 billion euros) between taxes and fiscal revenues deriving from legal cannabis.
The legalization of cannabis it has huge benefits: economic, social and environmental. The continuous estimates and studies conducted in countries that choose to abandon the path of repression are confirmation of this.
Despite this, how he highlighted MJBizDaily, the situation in Canada remains complex, in fact, "private businesses say they are struggling to stay afloat due to excessive taxationwhile the legal cannabis industry pumps billions of dollars into government coffers."
Canada: $1.5 billion from legal cannabis
Increased by 46% compared to the 2020-2021 fiscal year, when the federal government collected C$514 million, total taxes assessed by the Canada Revenue Agency rose to 752.5 million of Canadian dollars in 2021-22.
In the 2021-22 financial year, Statistics Canada also confirmed that wholesalers made sales for 3.1 billion of Canadian dollars.
Finally, again according to the agency's data, the total revenue due to sun taxes which include sales in all provinces, from both wholesalers and licensed dispensaries, exceeded C$1.2 million.
However, legalization in Canada, as anticipated, has encountered two major obstacles: the persistence of black market, which, obviously not being taxed, sells cannabis at lower prices compared to dispensaries, thus managing to gain a good share of consumers.
Although, a study published in 2021 highlighted that the 70% of consumers purchased its cannabis from regulated Canadian outlets instead of from illicit trafficking.
The second big problem is that much of Canadian cultivation goes lost. In fact, according to estimates by Health Canada, the country's health authority, from January to December 2021 Canada destroyed approximately 425 million grams of unpackaged cannabis.
