Canada became the second country to adopt a national adult-use cannabis legalization measure in 2018. The only other country to adopt a national recreational cannabis legalization measure before Canada was Uruguay in 2013. However, whereas Uruguay limits legal adult-use sales to residents only, Canada permits sales to anyone of legal age regardless of residency status.
The legal cannabis industry in Canada continues to benefit all members of Canadian society, not just consumers, medical cannabis patients, and cannabis business owners. Proof of that comes in the form of the boost to Canada’s overall GDP that the legal industry provides.
“The cannabis industry’s contribution to Canada’s GDP continued to increase in May, even as the country’s overall GDP has declined along with the country’s agriculture and retail sectors.” reported StratCann in its recent coverage. “While Canada’s real gross domestic product (GDP) edged down 0.1% in May for the second consecutive month, the licensed cannabis sector increased by 0.63% for a total of a $9.28 billion contribution.”
“Although the retail trade sector in Canada contracted 1.2% in May, the licensed retail cannabis sector increased by 1.9% compared to the previous month. The licensed retail cannabis sector’s contribution to Canada’s GDP in May 2025 was just over $1 billion.” the outlet also reported.
According to the results of a previous analysis from Deloitte in early 2022, the legal cannabis industry in Canada had created roughly 151,000 jobs in the first four years following the adoption of adult-use legalization.
In addition to generating new jobs across Canada, the emerging legal cannabis industry was responsible for contributing over $43.5 billion to the nation’s GDP at the time their analysis was published. Cannabis companies had directly invested roughly $4.4 billion into Canada’s economy between late 2018 and early 2022, with the remaining boost to GDP coming from “indirect” economic contributions and “induced” contributions.