Products like these pre-rolls, among other quick products, have seen an increase in sales.

By Tommy Osborne

Cannabis sales up

Cannabis sales picking up falling alcohol revenue

Mar 20, 2026 | 4:51 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Alcohol sales continue to drop year over year, and it appears much of that lost revenue is going into cannabis. Stats Canada reported cannabis sales saw an 11.5% increase in the 2024-25 fiscal sale, and Prince George retailers say the national trend is certainly reflected locally.

“We’re seeing a lot of the quick and easy to use, like the disposables, the vapes, infused pre-rolls, seeing a lot of more of those going out the door. I think people are like ‘I just want something quick, we’re going on a hike,’ or ‘we’re going out,’ that’s a lot of what we got this summer,” said Dawn Lebel, owner of Epik Products Inc.

Cannabis has been trending in the opposite direction of alcohol, as it has seen large gains year over year for sales, and Lebel believes the general public being more educated about cannabis, on top of cannabis being increasingly destigmatized, play significant roles. That, on top of what she believes to be a generational shift away from alcohol.

“They (younger people) see what happened with alcoholics in their past. Most of us have grown up with someone in our life who’s an alcoholic, and just the negative feelings that come from that,” Lebel said.

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While cannabis sales have continued to rise, the Stats Canada report notes growth in recreational cannabis sales from provincial authorities and other retailers has slowed. While it was still an increase at 6.1% year over year, this is down from an 11.6% increase in 2023/24 and a 15.8% increase in 2022/23. This has some cannabis advocates calling for more government supports to better support this billion dollar industry.

“There’s no framework created, and there doesn’t appear to be any desire by the government to create that framework. So us as an industry, we’ve essentially created the framework for this,” said Nadine Furnell, a Board Member with the B.C. Cannabis Tourism Alliance.

Furnell says the provincial government has made some moves to support growers, like quadrupling the canopy space for micro-cultivators, but she says this is a move that works in theory but struggles to translate to real world impacts.

“The small micro farmer who is barely getting $1 a gram, how are they supposed to grow their facility? How are they supposed to quadruple their canopy growth without any support from the federal government or the provincial government or municipal? You look at grants, and it’s all excluded,” Furnell said.

One huge boost to address many issues cannabis growers are seeing is classifying cannabis as agriculture, which Furnell says the provincial government has indicated some interest in.

“That alone would allow cannabis farmers to have tax breaks and utilize the agricultural funding that is out there for the farming industry,” she said.

As for Lebel, she pointed to specific classifications around certain products as a way to further boost sales.

“Until the government releases or changes the amounts of THC that they can have in beverages and edibles, we will never compete with the black market and we will never compete with the liquor stores,” Lebel said.

Lebel and Furnell both say supporting the billion dollar cannabis industry would be a win for the entire community, as it’s a rising tide lifts all boats type of situation.

“It creates jobs, it creates tourism, there’s economic drivers, there’s a significant amount of taxation revenue collected by both provincial and federal governments. The GDP is up thanks to cannabis,” Furnell said.

Stats Canada added cannabis edibles was the only cannabis product to see a decline in sales.