Survey: 65% of Canadian Cannabis Consumers Only Use Legal Sources

Five years after Canada legalized cannabis for adult use, 65% of consumers said they purchased only from legal sources, according to a survey from Pollara Strategic Insights. The firm found that the public continues to largely accept the reforms, with 52% expressing outright approval, 20% ambivalent, and 23% disapproving. 

Ther survey found that about 30% of Canadians believe legalization has resulted in increased crime, which Pollara said roughly matches expectations, but that about 10% believe it has caused a decrease. Another 70% said they feel like the number of stores selling adult-use cannabis has increased since its legalization, while 30% said they believed the number of illegal stores has increased. 

“Five years since legalization, over a quarter (27%) of Canadians report using cannabis in some form in the past 12 months – representing a 2-point increase from July 2022, a 9-point increase since March 2019, and a doubling of reported levels pre-legalization (+14 points). One-in-ten (11%) of all adult Canadians – including two-in-ten (21%) cannabis users – report having only used cannabis since legalization.” — Pollara Strategic Insights, “Legal cannabis in Canada: 5 years later,” Fall 2023 

Just 36% of Canadian cannabis consumers still tend to view prices in the legal market as higher than those in the informal market, while 17% said they were about the same. 

Only a quarter of those polled said cannabis legalization has had an overall negative impact on Canada or their province.