High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report

Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.

Five years after cannabis became legal in Canada, the country's national statistical agency has the average Canadian consumer pretty well figured out. Are you a woman over 25 who enjoys cannabis? Statistically speaking, you probably prefer an edible over smoking dried flower.

Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the social, health and economic impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in October 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year, broken down by age and sex.

The agency's findings include some changes for the better since legalization.

"Some encouraging findings since legalization include an increase in the share of cannabis obtained from legal sources from 2018 to 2023, a decrease in the number of cannabis-drug offences (since legalization, possession is not considered a criminal offence, although there are exceptions), and no increase in rates of cannabis use among 15-to-17 year olds," the agency's Research to Insights: Cannabis in Canada report said.

Among the seven-out-of-10 cannabis consumers who bought exclusively from the legal market in the 12 months prior to the survey, the main reasons cited for buying from legal sources were product safety (38 per cent), convenience (16.9 per cent) and a desire to follow the law (12.9 per cent).

In Canada last year, 8.7 per cent of adults aged 18 to 24 and 10.3 per cent of those 25 to 44 reported having used cannabis daily or almost daily in the previous 12 months, compared with 4.8 per cent of adults aged 45 years and older.

Among adults aged 45 and older, men were more likely to use cannabis daily than women, while sex was not a factor in adults younger than 45.