Alberta EconomyPublished 2 November 2026

Cannabis in Alberta

Fewer Albertans use cannabis than in 2022, and legal stores sell a quarter more

Published 2 November 2026, with Statistics Canada data retrieved 2 November 2026.

In 2022, 27.1% of Alberta adults told Statistics Canada's health survey they had used cannabis in the past year. In 2025, 20.5% did, a fall larger than the survey's . Over the same years, sales at the province's rose from $797 million to $1.0 billion a year. Store sales per user rose from about $862 in 2022 to about $1,275 in 2025.

Alberta has the largest legal market for its size of any province, at $250 of sales per adult in fiscal 2024/25 against $167 for Canada. On Statistics Canada's estimate, most of the fall in illicit spending came before 2022, so it accounts for little of the growth since. And the growth has stopped: in the first eight months of 2026, store sales ran 2.2% below the same months of 2025.

That reading is a working hypothesis, and the tests section sets out what would break it, including the first version of it, which the data broke.

Fiscal 2021/22–2024/25 · legal sales per adult

Alberta sells more legal cannabis per adult than any other province

$250 for every Albertan of legal age in fiscal 2024/25, $26 more than Newfoundland and Labrador, the next province, and $83 above the national figure. Only one territory, Yukon, at $384, sold more. Alberta has led the provinces in every year of the table, which starts in fiscal 2021/22. The figure counts sales where the store is, so purchases by visitors land in Alberta's total, and Alberta's legal age of 18 puts more people in its divisor than a province with a legal age of 19.

The lead came early. In 2020, Alberta's stores took 22.0% of all sales at Canadian cannabis stores. By 2025, as the other provinces opened their own, the share was 17.8%.

Alberta spends the most per adult on legal cannabis of any province

Legal cannabis sales per person of legal age · fiscal 2024/2025 (April to March) · dollars · Statistics Canada table 10-10-0164-01

The divisor is each province's population: 18 and over in Alberta, 19 in most provinces, 21 in Quebec, where stores also sell no vapes.

2017–2024 · household spending

The illicit-market estimate fell 44% by 2021 and has barely moved since

From $567.0 million in 2017 to $318.7 million in 2021: that is what Statistics Canada estimates Albertans spent on unlicensed cannabis, before and after three full years of legal sales. From 2021 to 2024 it fell another $21.7 million, to $297.0 million.

By 2024, 77.2% of Alberta's non-medical cannabis spending went to licensed sellers, its , against 69.6% across Canada. Medical cannabis, bought by prescription, fell from $195.9 million in 2018 to $43.8 million in 2024.

Plain words · How a market with no receipts gets a number

Every legal sale leaves a record: a provincial wholesaler ships it, a store rings it in. That is why the licensed line can be counted.

The unlicensed line has no records behind it. Statistics Canada builds it inside the household accounts from what it knows about how many people use cannabis, how much they use and what it costs, and it treats the result as an estimate to be revised. Read it as the size of the illicit trade to within a wide margin, not to the dollar.

Licensed spending passed the illicit estimate in 2020 and kept rising after the estimate levelled off

Alberta household spending on cannabis · 2017–2024 · current dollars, millions · unlicensed is Statistics Canada's estimate · table 36-10-0225-01

After 2022, licensed spending rose $160.5 million while the unlicensed estimate fell $14.2 million, about one dollar in 11.

On Statistics Canada's estimate, then, the illicit trade accounts for little of what the stores added after 2022. And the health survey counts fewer users, not more.

2019–2025 · Canadian Community Health Survey

Fewer Albertans say they use cannabis than in 2022

27.1% of adults reported in 2022 (95% interval 25.4 to 28.8) and 20.5% in 2025 (18.9 to 22.3). The ranges do not overlap. Both years are on the survey's 2022 redesign, and 2022 was Alberta's highest reading in the series. In people, about 924,600 users became about 784,000.

Among adults 18 to 34 the share fell from 42.8% to 27.2%. went from 7.2% of all adults to 5.5%; the two years' 95% intervals meet at 6.3%.

Alberta fell further than the country. Statistics Canada marked Alberta's rate above the national one in every year from 2019 to 2023. In 2024 and 2025 it was not different: Alberta dropped 6.6 percentage points from 2022, Canada 3.6 percentage points.

Alberta's cannabis use fell faster than Canada's, to the national rate

Used cannabis in the past 12 months · share of adults · 2019–2025 · shaded: Alberta's 95% confidence interval · Statistics Canada table 13-10-0905-01

The dashed line marks 2022, the first year of the redesigned survey. Read the earlier years against later ones with that break in mind.

2022–2025 · sales per user · products

Sales per user rose by about half, most of it in vapes and other inhaled extracts

Divide each year's store sales by the survey's count of users: about $862 per user in 2022, about $1,275 in 2025, 48% more. At the least favourable ends of both years' survey ranges it still rose, from at most $915 to at least $1,167.

Prices did not carry it. In , licensed spending rose 21.5% from 2022 to 2024, more than the 19.0% rise in current dollars. The implied price, 2017 = 100, went from 72.1 to 70.6.

One product group took the growth. Vapes and other inhaled extracts, which include concentrates, sold $176 million of $728 million in fiscal 2021/22 and $381 million of $961 million in 2024/25, 88% of the whole increase. Dried flower went from $482 million to $499 million.

Sales of vapes and other inhaled extracts doubled while dried flower held

Alberta legal cannabis sales by product · fiscal 2021/2022–2024/2025 · millions of dollars · Statistics Canada table 10-10-0164-01

Vapes and other inhaled extracts went from 24% of sales to 40%.

The record cannot yet choose between three readings: the remaining users buying more; purchases moving from the unrecorded market to stores faster than the illicit estimate shows; or fewer users telling the survey they use. The survey does not ask where people buy.

2019–2026 · stores and monthly sales

Store numbers peaked at 756 in 2022 and 2023, and in 2026 sales stopped climbing

counted 75 licensed stores at 31 March 2019 and 756 three years later. At 31 March 2025 there were 713. Sales per store rose from $1.0 million in fiscal 2021/22 to $1.3 million in 2024/25.

Alberta went from 75 cannabis stores to 756 in three years, then lost 43

Licensed cannabis retail stores at 31 March · 2019–2025 · AGLC annual reports

Sales held up longer than the store count. Over the trailing twelve months they reached $1.0 billion in the year to November 2025. In the first eight months of 2026 they came to $650 million, 2.2% below the $665 million of the same months of 2025, after every full year since 2019 had beaten the one before.

Store sales levelled off at about $1.0 billion a year

Alberta cannabis retailers' sales, trailing 12 months · September 2019 – August 2026 · millions of dollars, unadjusted · Statistics Canada table 20-10-0056-01

Statistics Canada revises recent months as late reports arrive; the latest months here are the first estimates.

Fiscal 2024/25 · the public wholesaler and the taxes

The province's money comes from excise tax, not from its wholesale margin

Alberta's stores are private, and all of them buy from one wholesaler, AGLC. In fiscal 2024/25, AGLC sold $693.0 million of cannabis to stores and online buyers and kept $7.0 million as net income, about 1.0 cents per dollar of its sales.

Taxes and other government revenue from cannabis in Alberta came to $343.5 million: $231.9 million recorded as provincial and territorial excise tax, $51.1 million as federal excise tax and customs duties, $48.1 million of GST and $12.4 million of other revenue. Retail sales that year were $961.3 million.

Fiscal year 1 April to 31 March. Line names are Statistics Canada's, from table 10-10-0165-01.

The working hypothesis

Six tests, and the one the first version failed

The hypothesis: since 2022, Alberta's legal cannabis sales grew while fewer adults reported using cannabis, so sales per user rose, and in 2026 the growth stopped.

1.
Fewer adults use cannabis than in 2022. · Holds
It fails if the 2022 and 2025 95% intervals overlap.
Result: 25.4–28.8% against 18.9–22.3%.
2.
Legal sales rose over the same years. · Holds
It fails if store sales in 2025 were no higher than in 2022.
Result: $797 million to $1.0 billion, 25.4% more.
3.
Sales per user rose by more than the survey's error. · Holds
It fails if the per-user ranges built from both years' 95% intervals overlap.
Result: $810–$915 in 2022, $1,167–$1,383 in 2025.
4.
More cannabis was bought, not just dearer cannabis. · Holds
It fails if licensed spending in constant dollars rose less than in current dollars.
Result: 21.5% in constant dollars, 19.0% in current dollars, 2022–2024.
5.
The first version: legal growth since 2022 came from taking the illicit trade's sales. · Does not hold
It fails if the fall in the unlicensed estimate covers less than a quarter of the rise in licensed spending.
Result: $14.2 million against $160.5 million, 8.8%.
6.
Sales are still growing. · Does not hold
It fails if sales in the months of 2026 published so far are below the same months of 2025.
Result: $650 million against $665 million, January to August.

Gaps

What the record can't say

Whether fewer users means less harm. No public Alberta series on cannabis-related emergency visits or hospital stays is published under terms that allow it here.

1.Emergency visits and hospital stays caused by cannabis (not on this page) — The only year-by-year Alberta series found, CIHI's hospital stays for harm caused by substance use, is published under terms that do not allow commercial use without written permission. Alberta Health's substance-use dashboards have no downloadable cannabis table.
2.Store counts in other provinces (not on this page) — Each province's regulator counts its own stores in its own way and at its own dates; there is no common table, so stores appear here for Alberta only.
3.Use among Albertans under 18 (not in this source) — The annual health survey table covers adults 18 and over from 2019.
4.Spending after 2024 and fiscal-year sales after 2024/2025 (awaiting Statistics Canada) — The household spending table ends at 2024 and the cannabis authority tables at the fiscal year ending 31 March 2025. The monthly retail series runs to the latest month.

Sources and method

Six sources, five of them Statistics Canada tables

Sales come from three places that measure different things. Statistics Canada's monthly retail survey counts what cannabis stores sell, by calendar month. Its cannabis authority tables count retail sales by fiscal year and break them down by product and per adult; for Alberta, the monthly figures summed April to March match them to within 0.02%. The household accounts value what people spend, legal or not, by calendar year. In 2024, stores sold $948 million and households spent $1.0 billion on licensed cannabis, 6.2% more.

Sales per user divide calendar-year store sales by the health survey's estimated number of adults who used cannabis in that year, and its range uses the survey's published 95% interval on that number. Store sales came in below household spending on licensed cannabis in every year both measures exist, so this is the smaller of the two.

·Statistics Canada, 20-10-0056-01: Monthly retail trade sales by province and territory. Total retail sales of businesses Statistics Canada classes as cannabis retailers, Alberta and Canada, unadjusted, monthly from October 2018. Alberta's April-to-March sums match the fiscal-year totals in table 10-10-0164-01 to within 0.02%. Calendar-year totals on this page are the sum of twelve unadjusted months. Licence: Statistics Canada Open Licence.
·Statistics Canada, 36-10-0225-01: Detailed household final consumption expenditure, provincial and territorial, annual. Household spending on cannabis in three lines: non-medical licensed, non-medical unlicensed, and medical, in current dollars and (for the non-medical lines) 2017 constant dollars, Alberta and Canada, to 2024. The licensed line is anchored in recorded sales; there are no receipts for the unlicensed line, so it is Statistics Canada's estimate, built inside the national accounts, and is revised with them. Licence: Statistics Canada Open Licence.
·Statistics Canada, 13-10-0905-01: Health indicator statistics, annual estimates. Canadian Community Health Survey. Share and number of adults 18 and over, and of adults 18 to 34, who report using cannabis in the past 12 months, and who report using it daily or almost daily (as a share of the whole population, users and non-users), Alberta and Canada excluding the territories, 2019 to 2025. Each point carries the table's published 95% confidence interval and its significance flags against the national rate and against the previous year. Licence: Statistics Canada Open Licence.
·Statistics Canada, 10-10-0164-01: Sales of cannabis by liquor and cannabis authorities and other retail outlets, by cannabis type. Fiscal years ending 31 March, 2021/2022 to 2024/2025. Value of sales per person of legal age (18 in Alberta, 19 in most provinces, 21 in Quebec) for every province and territory and for Canada; Alberta's sales by product type. Licence: Statistics Canada Open Licence.
·Statistics Canada, 10-10-0165-01: Net income of cannabis authorities and government revenue from the sale of cannabis. Fiscal years ending 31 March. Alberta's cannabis authority (AGLC) sales, costs and net income, and federal and provincial taxes and other government revenue from cannabis. Licence: Statistics Canada Open Licence.
·Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis, AGLC annual reports, 2018-19 to 2024-25: Licensed cannabis retail stores, as at March 31. Store counts at each 31 March, 2019 to 2025, read from the annual reports published on open.alberta.ca (stores.json). Licence: Open Government Licence – Alberta.

Statistics Canada's notes, in its own words.

·sales per person (10-10-0164-01) — who counts as a person. “Per capita sales by value are based on the population of inhabitants of legal age to buy, use, possess, and grow recreational cannabis. The population estimates are based on table 17-10-0005-01 Estimates of Population, by age group and sex for July 1, Canada, provinces, and territories, annual (persons).” source
·sales per person (10-10-0164-01) — products not sold in Quebec. “Cannabis vapes and topicals are not sold in Quebec. Solid edibles were not sold until the 2022/2023 reference year, but sales data are unavailable for that reference year.” source
·cannabis use (13-10-0905-01) — 2022 survey redesign. “The 2022 cycle of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) introduced a redesigned questionnaire and a new collection method, with most responses collected through online self-reporting and the remainder by interviewer (about 40% of the completed cases). Users must carefully consider the potential impact of methodological changes on observed differences and use caution when comparing 2022 data with previous cycles.” source
·cannabis use (13-10-0905-01) — 2020 collection. “The COVID-19 pandemic had major impacts on the data collection operations for the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 2020. The collection was stopped mid-March, towards the end of the first collection period, and did not resume until September.” source
·daily use (13-10-0905-01) — what the daily figure is a share of. “The percentage of daily or almost daily cannabis users is calculated out of the full population.” source

Sources left out.

·Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), hospital stays for harm caused by substance use — CIHI's terms of use allow non-commercial use only without its written permission. terms
·Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, Canadian Substance Use Costs and Harms — Its terms do not allow republication without written permission. terms
·Health Canada, Canadian Cannabis Survey summaries — The published summaries give national figures only; an Alberta figure would mean tabulating the survey's microdata ourselves. terms

Contains information licensed under the Statistics Canada Open Licence. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Alberta. Store counts: Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC), Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis annual report. Data fetched 2 November 2026; the Statistics Canada series are regenerated as new periods are published.

Plain-words glossary — every term on this page, in one place

95% confidence interval.: The range a survey figure would fall in 95 times out of 100 if the survey were repeated with a new sample. When two years' ranges do not overlap, the change between them is larger than sampling error alone would produce.
AGLC.: Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis, the provincial agency that licenses cannabis stores, is the only wholesaler they may buy from, and runs the province's online store. Stores are privately owned.
Cannabis retailers.: Stores whose main business is selling cannabis, as Statistics Canada's monthly retail survey classes them.
Constant 2017 dollars.: Spending re-valued at 2017 prices, so a rise reflects more cannabis bought rather than higher prices. Dividing current-dollar spending by it gives an implied price index, 2017 = 100.
Daily or almost daily use.: Adults who report using cannabis daily or almost daily in the past 12 months, as a share of all adults, users and non-users alike. So it is not the share of users who use daily.
Fiscal year.: 1 April to 31 March. The provincial authorities report on it, so the per-person, product and revenue figures on this page run on it; the monthly sales and the survey run on calendar years.
Legal share.: Licensed non-medical spending as a share of all non-medical cannabis spending, licensed plus unlicensed. Medical cannabis, bought by prescription from federally licensed sellers, is left out of both sides.
Licensed and unlicensed spending.: Statistics Canada's national accounts split what households spend on non-medical cannabis into two lines: licensed, bought from stores and online sellers the provinces authorize, and unlicensed, bought anywhere else. The licensed line rests on recorded sales. Nobody records unlicensed sales, so that line is Statistics Canada's estimate, and it is revised as the accounts are.
Past-year use.: The share of adults 18 and over who tell the Canadian Community Health Survey they used cannabis at least once in the past 12 months. Self-reported, every year, with a published 95% confidence interval on each figure.
Sales per person of legal age.: A province's legal cannabis sales in a fiscal year divided by its residents old enough to buy cannabis: 18 and over in Alberta, 19 in most provinces, 21 in Quebec. Statistics Canada publishes the figure in whole dollars.

Where to go next. Monthly cannabis store sales and cannabis's share of Alberta retail are free charts, here and here. Statistics Canada publishes every table on this page at statcan.gc.ca, and AGLC's annual reports are on open.alberta.ca.

Made by FlossyPurse Studios Data. See all the reports.

The live charts behind this report

The same series, kept current as the sources publish. The report's own figures are as of its last refresh.

Corrections

Found a number that's wrong, or a source we misread? Email hello@flossypurse.studio and say which number. FlossyPurse Studios writes these reports and reads every message.