Survey: 72% of Canadian cannabis consumers purchase from legal sources

Nearly three-quarters of legal cannabis users (71.7 %) in Canada now report purchasing products exclusively on the regulated market, according to the National Cannabis Survey (2023) released on March 18.

Respondents cited the following main reasons for their decision to source from (at least) one of the 3,000 cannabis stores existing in Canada:

• 38 % respondents said they purchased legal products because of concerns about product safety
• 16.9% of % respondents said the legal market was more convenient
• 12.9% of % respondents said they wanted to comply with the law.

The investigation revealed that the most commonly used types of products during the previous year were dried cannabis flowers (62.1 %), followed by infused edibles (57.1 %).

In particular, the vape pen and vaper cartridges were more popular among young cannabis users, while infused topical products (cosmetics) and cannabis oils Oral products were more popular among older consumers, according to the pollsters. Among consumers aged 25 or older, cannabis flower products are used more often by men (70.2 %) than by women (48.4 %).

In addition, The investigation revealed More than one-third of people aged 18 to 24 (38.4%) and 25 to 44 (34.5%) reported having used cannabis at least once in the 12 months prior to the survey, compared with only 15.5% of adults aged 45 and older.

The Canada legalized cannabis for adult use in 2018 becoming the the first G7 country to legalize cannabis.