Pot Price Crowdsourcing to Help Canada Track Legalization Impact

(Bloomberg) -- Crowdsourcing is the latest tool Canada plans to use to assess marijuana’s role in the economy as the country gears up to legalize it for recreational use this summer.

A platform to collect voluntary information on pot prices and use will be part of the Cannabis Statistics Hub the government’s statistics agency will make available through its website, according to a notice Tuesday. A report called the Cannabis Economic Account, with data from 1961 to 2017, will be published Thursday at 8:30 a.m. from Ottawa.

“All levels of government will need information related to the production, distribution and consumption of non-medical cannabis prior to and following legalization to support the development of policies and regulations,” the agency said. “The hub will also include a voluntary crowdsourcing platform to collect information on the purchase price and use of cannabis.”

Statistics Canada released preliminary figures in December estimating Canadians consumed as much as C$6.2 billion ($5 billion) worth of marijuana in 2015, almost as much as they spent on wine. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has committed to full legalization of recreational use by around July, a move that’s created a surge in the share prices of producers.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Quinn in Ottawa at gquinn1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Theophilos Argitis at targitis@bloomberg.net, Carlos Caminada, Michael Hytha

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