Canada’s medical cannabis market remains steady, exports continue to increase

January 14, 2025 | David Brown

The number of client registrations with federally licensed sellers of cannabis for medical purposes continued to remain fairly stable from March 2023 to June 2024.

Health Canada’s newest figures for the medical cannabis market showed only a 1% decline from 180,878 in March 2023 to 179,931 in June 2024.

Meanwhile, the number of individuals registered with Health Canada for personal and designated cultivation of cannabis for their own medical purposes continues to increase. There were 15,726 such registrations in March 2024 and 16,609 in June 2024, a 6% increase.

The majority of the increase, 883 registrations for personal/designated production, came from three provinces. Ontario saw the most, with an increase of 329 registrations, Quebec accounted for 248, and British Columbia had 177.

The average daily amount of cannabis authorized by health care practitioners was again 2.4 grams per day. This amount has averaged around 2.0 and 2.4 grams per day since legalization began in October 2018.

As of June 2024, the average daily amount authorized by health care practitioners for individuals registered with Health Canada for personal or designated production was 34.6 grams per day, up from 33.0 grams per day as of December 2023.

Health Canada continues to express concern at this growing discrepancy in authorized daily totals of cannabis, engaging with provincial colleges of physicians, scrutinizing applications, and inspecting authorized production sites.

Health Canada has ramped up inspections of such licences, with more than 300 in the last two years. The most recent annual report also included 20 compliance and enforcement activities (other than inspection) for registered personal and designated production of cannabis for medical purposes, such as conducting seizures and destructions.

Of the 160 inspections of registered personal and designated production of cannabis for medical purposes locations in 2023-2024, 74 were in British Columbia, 63 in Ontario, 18 in Quebec, and five in New Brunswick. In the previous year, the majority of such inspections (115 out of 170) were in Ontario.

There were 1,010 health care practitioners (HCPs) associated with active personal/designated production registrations, up from 941 as of December 2023. Of these, 232 healthcare practitioners authorized amounts equal to or above 25 grams per day, up from 222 as of December 2023. The number of HCPs associated with amounts equal to or above 100 grams per day dropped from 13 as of December 2023 to 8 as of June 2024.

The majority (78%) of HCPs having authorized amounts equal to or above 25 grams per day were still located in British Columbia and Ontario. Once again, 100% of HCPs having authorized amounts equal to or above 100 grams per day were located in British Columbia and Ontario.

The export market

Exports of cannabis for medical purposes continued to show significant increases. There were 67,475.28 kilograms of dried cannabis exported to the international market in the first six months of 2024 and 79,279.75 kilograms exported in 2023.

Exports of cannabis oil for medical purposes have also increased significantly in the last few years. In the first six months of 2024, Canada exported 10,489.38 litres of cannabis oil, and in 2023, 7,078.9 litres. In September 2023 alone, 1,011,74 litres were exported, the highest month on record.