The public largely accepts cannabis legalization and 65% of cannabis users report they only buy legal cannabis now. However, a third of Canadians believe there are more illegal stores since legalization.
This was reported in a new study by Polara Insights, which tracked public and cannabis user perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours five years after legalization in October 2018. Polara randomly surveyed 2,006 Canadians 18 years and older from across the country.
Public Accepts Legalization
Five years post-legalization, the public continues to largely accept legalization (72%), with 52% expressing outright approval, 20% ambivalent, and 23% disapproving. These levels have remained steady since 2020. The study found that Atlantic Canadians are the most likely to approve of cannabis in the country.
Approval levels have increased slightly across all provinces compared to March 2021, except for Alberta where approval declines slightly; however, acceptance is high and on par with the other provinces.
Almost seven-in-ten Canadians express approval (40-45%) or ambivalence (24-27%) to the approach federal and provincial governments have taken to cannabis legalization and regulation, overall.
The incidence of negative public perceptions is far below the ‘pessimistic expectations’ recorded prior to October 2018. Only a quarter feel cannabis legalization has had an overall negative impact on Canada or their province. On economic and tax revenue measures, perceived positive impacts outweigh negatives by 2:1.
However, when considering health impacts, the public has a more negative than positive view—especially when considering youth and children.
Public Concerns
The survey found that while many feel legalization has caused an increase in the number of cannabis users and cannabis frequency (52%), this proportion is notably lower than the number of Canadians who expected such an increase prior to legalization (69%).
While one-third feel legalization has resulted in an increase in the usage of other hard drugs (30%), a similar proportion feels it has remained the same (32%). 45% of respondents feel legalization has had no impact on alcohol usage.
There is a notable increase in the proportion of people that report smelling cannabis in public and seeing people ‘high’ in public compared to 2021.
The perceived prevalence of drug-impaired driving is significantly lower compared to pre-legalization expectations, but it is still relatively high.
About three-in-ten Canadians feel legalization has resulted in increased crime, but one-in-ten feel it has caused a decrease. Seven-in-ten feel the number of stores selling recreational cannabis has increased since its legalization, but a third also believe the number of illegal stores has increased.
Cannabis Usage
Five years post-legalization, 27% of Canadians report using cannabis in some form in the past 12 months, a doubling of reported levels pre-legalization. Half (49%) of Canadians now say they’ve used cannabis at least once in their lifetime.
11% of all adult Canadians, including 21% of cannabis users, report having only used cannabis since legalization.
While there are new users entering the market, there are also some that are reducing their usage frequency, which explains why usage frequency hasn’t continued to increase drastically since legalization. Interestingly, those who had used cannabis before and after legalization are more likely to have reduced (30%) rather than increased (20%) their frequency of use.
Daily/weekly users, however, are much more likely to have increased their usage frequency since legalization (33% increased versus 9% decreased), while past 12-month users have balanced usage frequency, where increase and decrease in usage is the same (25% increased versus 23% decreased).
Gen Z (42% versus 20%), millennials (29% versus 20%) and boomers (37% versus 16%) are more likely to have reduced usage frequency since legalization compared to before legalization, whereas Gen X is likely to use cannabis more often now than before (25% versus 19%).
Purchasing Patterns and the Illicit Market
Dry flower remains the most frequently used format amongst past 12-month users, followed by edibles. However, when considering all formats used—regardless of frequency—edibles are now slightly ahead of dry bud.
82% of past 12-month users report buying legal cannabis, with 65% saying they only buy legal cannabis—a 7-point increase in legal buying since November 2022 and a 15-point increase since March 2021.
13% of users report buying illicit cannabis with 4% reporting that they buy illicit products only. 21% of users report not buying cannabis themselves but being given it by others or growing it legally themselves.
Past 12-month users still tend to view legal prices as higher (36%) or the same (17%) as illegal prices, but perceptions of higher prices remain significantly lower than 2019-2021 and four-in-ten are currently unsure.
Notably, based on user reporting, purchasing via only legal sources continues to increase—from 59% in March 2021 to 65%. Illicit-only purchase has seen a drop too, from 7% to 4%.
Daily/weekly users report primarily purchasing through only legal sources (63%), but they are also more likely to purchase from illicit sources (22%) than less frequent users, with 5% purchasing illicit cannabis only. 11% grow their own cannabis legally.
Reported illicit purchases are more common in Atlantic Canada (16%), BC (13%) and Ontario (12%) users, and least common in Quebec (5%) and Alberta (6%).