The retail sales of cannabis products is surging in both the United States and Canada.

Canadian retailers sold a historic quantity of marijuana and marijuana-related products in the month of June, according to sales data compiled by Statistics Canada. Retailers sold just over $201 million dollars of product in June, the highest monthly total ever reported. June’s total marked an eight percent increase in sales over the prior monthly record set in May.

Adult-use marijuana sales began in Canada in October 2018.

Sales trends are similar in much of the United States. In recent months, sales data of adult-use cannabis products in several states, including California, Colorado, Illinois, and Oregon, have reached record highs. According to a recent economic analysis of 24 state-legal cannabis markets by New Frontier Data, “One unanticipated effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the growth acceleration of legal cannabis markets (and erosion of the illicit markets) in those states which have activated both medical and adult-use sales.”

Commenting on the trends, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said: “The dramatic rise in retail marijuana sales is likely not so much a reflection of increased consumer demand, but of consumers shifting from the illicit market to the above-ground legal marketplace. As these legal market continues to mature, consumers are going to continue gravitate toward it and away from the underground marketplace.”