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The number of Canadians buying cannabis from illegal sources has declined by 13 per cent in the last year, in what is one of the first official signs that the legal cannabis market is slowly but surely chipping away at the black market.

According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, an estimated 38 per cent of Canadian cannabis users obtained cannabis from the black market in the first three months of 2019, as opposed to 51 per cent in the first three months of 2018.

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“A similar decrease was noted for the proportion reporting friends or family as a source (47 per cent to 27 per cent,” Stats Can said.

The number of Canadians using legal cannabis in that same time frame also surged from 23 per cent of users, or 954,000 people to 47 per cent of users, or a whopping 2.5 million people.

Moreover, the Statistics Canada data pointed out that recent cannabis consumers, that is, those who began using the substance over the past three months were less likely to buy their weed from an illegal source, yet another indication that the legal market is becoming more of a go-to option for Canadians.