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It’s no secret that Canadians love weed, we produce some of the finest herb on the planet and can buy it almost anywhere we go. It’s fair to say Canada is a marijuana mecca. With an abundance of selection from premium cannabis flower, high end concentrates to delicious online edibles, prices for Canadian cannabis products can get steep. That doesn’t mean you have to break the bank to get quality weed. We dive into the cannabis market in Canada and show you how to find budget friendly weed without sacrificing quality.
Statistics Canada shows that 14% of Canadians admitted to smoking weed and 56% of those were on daily basis. It’s safe to say Canada is a very green friendly country with quality products at a reasonable price. But there a handful of countries who offer weed at even cheaper prices. In Ecuador a gram of weed goes for $1.34, holding the title of the cheapest weed in the world, crazy right?. Other countries like Columbia, Paraguay, Indonesia and Panama are a close second with the average gram of weed between around $2.
Now that I’ve made you wish you lived in South America. Let’s dive into the various ways cannabis connoisseurs like yourself can get your hands on some high quality bud at the lowest cost in Canada.
Let’s start with what province has the cheapest weed in Canada. Each province offers varying prices of weed per gram, obviously prices vary according to the specific strain and the different products such as edibles and extracts.
There are six provinces that average below the Canadian average of $10 per gram, this is largely due to the higher number of available sellers:
- Quebec: $6.75
- British Columbia – $7.15
- PEI: $7.69
- Saskatchewan- $8.02
- Ontario- $8.05
- New Brunswick: $8.27
The rest of the provinces and territories have a wide range of prices, especially the further North you go, with supply being extremely limited due to the smaller populations, distance and harsh climate:
- Nova Scotia- $8.73
- Alberta: $9.07
- Manitoba- $9.14
- Newfoundland and Labrador- $9.36
- Northwest Territories: $9.58
- Yukon: $10.36
- Nunavut: $14.45
Now that we know the best provinces to purchase budget friendly weed, let’s take a look at the cheapest ways to consume weed.
Getting High On Your Own Supply
Consuming cannabis-based products comes in a wide variety of options. Many cannabis users choose to consume their weed via edibles or through various forms of concentrate such as hash, oil and shatter.
Concentrates: The average price per gram for Shatter goes for anywhere between $30 – $50 Canadian dollars, with prices getting lower when you buy more of the product in bulk. You may be saying to yourself, how is this considered cheap? Well, concentrates pack a lot more THC per gram then your average gram of flower. For example, the shatter you find at Haute Health averages anywhere between 40%-80% THC per gram, opposed to the flower which at its highest is around 20%-25% THC. So you might pay more for per gram for shatter but you get a lot more bang for your buck in THC percentage.
You get the most bang for your buck when you purchase shatter through Haute Health, our shatter is the lowest price in Canada starting at just $15 a gram.
Edibles: Similar to concentrates, edibles can pack a lot of punch in a small amount, but unlike concentrates, edibles can be very cost effective. The most cost effective way to consume edibles is if you make them yourself at home. For example, Haute sells what is known as Shake, which consists of small pieces of cannabis flower that break off of our larger buds, generally as the result of regular handling. Shake is commonly used when making edibles at home, especially with prices like Haute where you can get 28 grams (1 ounce) of shake for only $28. You can buy a batch of cookies mix, cake mix or brownie mix at your local grocery store for a few dollars, add the shake and BAM! You have enough edibles to last you weeks, with a very very low cost. Other options for edibles can be just as cost effective, you can find a pack of your favorite candy infused with 20% THC per candy, with 6 in a pack for as low as $15.
Flower: Cannabis flower prices offer the widest range of price when it comes to buying THC products. Using your provincial licensed producers tends to offer decent variety but with inflated prices. The average cost of a gram of cannabis through the provincial legal dispensaries is between $6-$14. Comparing that to an online dispensary like Haute, where you can buy a gram of cannabis for as low as $3.
Depending on how experienced you are of a smoker, cost effective purchasing is selective. If you are a heavy cannabis consumer options like concentrates and edibles are probably the best choice due to the relatively affordable prices for the high amounts of THC you get. If you only consume flower your best choice is to buy through sites like Haute Health where they can offer you the lowest prices in the country. When smoking flower your costs become inflated with the purchase of lets say rolling papers, bongs or pipes, but these offer more bang for your buck because they provide you with a stronger high and are the types of products that last for years.
To Grow Or Not To Grow
Growing cannabis yourself isn’t the most straightforward process and can become quite expensive depending on various things such as how you choose to grow, equipment you use and the time you dedicate to your plants.
When buying seeds you can choose between three different options: regular, feminized or autoflowering. Costs of seeds can very anywhere between a few dollars to hundreds of dollars depending on what strain you want to grow. None the less, the better quality cannabis you want to grow the more the seeds will cost you.
Planting outside in your garden is the most cost effective option when home growing. There are very minor costs associated with growing in your home garden, a small amount of composted soil and the use of water. You can however be effected by factors out of your control such as weather, animals and pests. Other then that, the sun is always free so you never have to pay for lighting.
Growing outdoors might be the cheaper option but many home growers grow their plants inside where they can have full control over the conditions. But that comes with a lot of additional costs like adequate grow space, lighting, air conditioning and proper nutrients you can’t get from your plants being indoors. These equipment options can costs hundreds to thousands of dollars for build a appropriate set up to grow several plants.
With the average time of growing your own plants around 3-6 months and the Canadian government allowing each household to grow a total of 4 plants, you can save a significant amount of money when you grow plants yourself, especially growing your plants outdoors. You can harvest a significant amount of cannabis buds via growing at home if done properly.
Most marijuana cookies are made using cannabutter, the abbreviation for cannabis butter, which is a method using cannabis to extract the THC from the buds into butter. This “budder” is then used to make the cookie dough(pe) – get it? Dough… dope… dough-pe… You get it. This is the easiest way of ensuring that your cannabis cookies ‘work’ in terms of giving you the same effects that smoking brings to the table. Some people choose to cook with the buds themselves, but due to its instability in this form or because of texture/taste issues we recommend just sticking to baking with cannabis oils/budders.
True Dope
In April, Stats Canada estimated that Canadian cannabis consumers who buy from the Canadian licenced producers spend around $10 a gram, while those who continue to buy through the grey market pay $6.37 a gram.
The reason so many Canadians still buy cannabis from online dispensaries is the cheaper costs, easier to source, quality and overall variety. The wide range in price between licenced producers and online dispensaries comes down to the extra taxation on legal cannabis each province adds on to their products, with each gram of cannabis being taxed an additional $1 a gram for both federal and provincial tax, plus GST and HST.
Product supply and demand is another obstacle licenced producers face. With the growing popularity of cannabis in Canada, legalization has become a double edge sword due to on going supply issues. Multiple licenced producers across Canada have run out of stock and are having difficulty getting more products in. The same goes for the provincial online stores, with numerous products out of stock, with no hope of resupply anytime soon. This has also effected the medicinal cannabis industry with licenced producers struggling to supply flower to their patients. This is due in large to all the newly acquired licensed producers who are largely run by individuals who no cannabis or cultivating background.
Online Dispensaries
Buying weed through online dispensaries has been a popular choice of purchase for millions of Canadians far before the government started to sell cannabis. These companies have been delivering weed to Canadians through the mail using discreet packaging, capitalizing on the various delivery laws which protect Canadians packages from being inspected.
Another advantage online dispensaries have is experience, as we touched on previously the new licensed producers have little experience when it comes to growing and farming cannabis. Old school master growers in the industry have a deep understanding on the specifics behind growing a superior cannabis, where as master growers who come from the agricultural sector with no experience cultivating cannabis struggle to produce quality product and meet the high demand of the Canadian consumer. Those who run online dispensaries are the most experienced in both cannabis growing and selling providing an abundance of high-quality product while keeping up with high demand.
The reasons majority of Canadians use online marijuana dispensaries is because of the cost effective deals and overall quality and selection of the cannabis offered. For instance, you can buy a gram of cannabis from licenced producers for as low as $6.50 but that does not include the additional costs of both federal and provincial taxes, whereas you can go to a site like Haute Health and buy a gram for as low as $3 and all you have to do it pay for shipping, no taxes. There is also the option of buying in bulk, where you can buy at wholesale prices, reducing costs by hundreds of dollars.
Variety is another key factor to buying weed online, the legal dispensaries only offer selective cannabis products, where the online stores offer every type of cannabis a consumer could want. Items such as edibles, concentrates, extracts, oils and vaporizers are only available via online weed stores, giving another reason consumers choose to purchase cannabis online.
Last but not least, shipping costs also play a big factor is finding the most budget friendly weed in Canada. Many online stores offer free shipping over a certain price, making another strong argument on why purchasing cannabis through online sources is the cheapest option in Canada.
There are many factors when finding the cheapest option of for weed in Canada, what province you are located in, how you’re getting the cannabis and the type of product you are selecting. With these factors in mind, buying through online dispensaries is hands down the cheapest option to purchase high quality cannabis in Canada. As competition grows in Canada, prices should continue to lower and hopefully one day we can compete with Ecuador as the cheapest country per gram.
Weed candy is quickly becoming one of the most sought after treats for many people. You don’t need to be a smoker to enjoy a good high. Put down the bong and light up the oven instead, or reach into a bag of delicious sweets for your daily fix. Cannabis is versatile, and it doesn’t care how you take it… just make sure that you do enjoy all this amazing, one-of-a-kind plant has to offer.
