A new report says the majority of Canadians are purchasing all their cannabis through legal sources.
After first prohibiting cannabis use in 1923, medical cannabis use was legalized in Canada in 2001 and then recreational use in 2018.
Given nearly 7 years has passed since the latter; has it had much effect on the illicit market?
Researchers from Canada, the UK and the USA indicate it has.
National surveys carried out in 2022 and 2023 among Canadians aged 16-65 years elicited information from 2,686 respondents who had used cannabis in the past 12 months across nine cannabis product types. Participants on average reported 78% of all their cannabis came from legal sources in the past year. Averages differed significantly between cannabis products, ranging from a low of 55.6% for hash to a high of 80.2% for beverages.
As for prices — the gap between legal and illegal has been closing, and for some types legal products appear to be cheaper.
- Dried flower: +23.8%
- Vapes: +18.7%
- Hash: +38.4%
- Capsules: -28.4%
- Drops: -3.3%
- Edibles: +3.9%
- Beverages: -8.8%
- Concentrates: +13.8%
- Tinctures: -17.0%
“Some differences are expected across the two markets considering differences in standard quantities purchased and the presence of quantity discounts in these markets. Analyses omitting purchase quantity may overestimate the price differential between legal and illegal sources.”
The study has been published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review.
As in other countries where it’s legal, cannabis is big business in Canada. Sales from legal retail sources have dramatically increased over time, reaching $4.7 billion in the 2022–2023 fiscal year. Total legal medical and non-medical sales in Canada reached 21,448,153 packaged units during April 2024 to June 2024, up 7% from the same period in 2023.
On a related note, a study published earlier this year looked into changes in cannabis use and misuse in the five years following legalization in Canada. It found cannabis use frequency increased modestly in during the period, while cannabis misuse decreased modestly. Interestingly, misuse dropped immediately after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and never returned to pre-pandemic levels. But why this happened isn’t well-understood and requires further research.
