Legalization and Economic Impact of the Recreational Cannabis in Canada

Andrey Oblovatskiy

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

Cannabis is well known for Humanity in contemporary history and almost from the dawn of history. But it always has been a topic for discussion or controversy. One of the modern trends in western civilization is to legalize cannabis for medical purposes, but it's arguable if the government should also legalize recreational usage of cannabis. But what if it is necessary to protect the population from the "healthy" point of view and benefit the economy? What if it is a good step for society as many people will avoid a prison sentence for "young mistakes" and therefore not integrate into the criminal world? The author aims to investigate this topic in Canada's example. Canada legalized recreational usage of cannabis in October 2018. What started an exciting and unique case, which none of the western countries has faced before. How will it affect society? What will happen to the economy? Also, it is necessary to understand the customers' behaviour, whose preferences and habits determine the industry's future development. Using the linear and multiple linear regression analysis, the author investigated legalization’s impact on criminality and GDP as one of the leading social and economic factors, respectively. Also, using the time-series analysis author had found out the state of the cannabis retail market and its development level.

Keywords

Recreational Cannabis, Econometric model, Regression Analysis, Cannabis, Canada

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 15. 3. 2022

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Jiří Mach, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Economics and Management

Bachelor programme:
Economics and Management