Marijuana is becoming an increasingly important part of the Canadian economy. According to data released Friday by the government's Statistics Canada, the cannabis industry's economic production totaled contributed just over $8.65 billion Canadian ($6.45 billion) in May. That's the highest level recorded so far this year, topping the $8.32 billion ($6.20 billion) of March.
The May figure represented growth of 11% year over year and is in contrast to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) trajectory -- over the same stretch of time, GDP contracted by almost 14%.
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