Yukoners are major weed smokers according to a StatsCan. A report that finds Yukon residents buy the most legal weed per capita from retail stores than any other province or territory in Canada.
Between October 2018 and September 2019 Yukon residents bought an average of 103 dollars of weed per person – a total of 4.2 million in sales. This study considers only recreational users and did not include total medical marijuana sales. Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia can second and third with per capita sales at $97 and $68 respectively. Ontario led overall sales at $217 million.
Anna Radzimirska is co-owner of Dawson City Cannabis and though she didn’t expect the Yukon to top the list she says she was not totally surprised. Radzimirska says that in her experience Yukoner’s are quite knowledgeable when it comes to cannabis and what exactly they want. She says that in the black market, often a dealer may only have one product, or not really know a whole lot about their products. Radzimirska says that legal stores can provide significant detail on products in terms of strains, THC content, CBD content and other information, and that is something Yukon buyers tend to appreciate.
Radzimirska concedes that her experiences may not be necessarily indicative of trends in Whitehorse, but says that at her location she doesn’t notice any particular trends among buyers, only that there are a lot of them. If anything, she says that while she expected a younger market, she has found herself selling a lot of her product to more middle-aged folks. She also is seeing a lot of interest in edibles and concentrates, which are not yet available, but will be soon.
The Yukon has three private stores in operation with another scheduled to open in Carmacks on December 16th. The Yukon government store closed in October, so that private businesses could take over.