Six years after Canada legalized marijuana sales nationwide, a new government report shows that daily or near-daily use rates by both adults and youth have held steady. Meanwhile, the vast majority of consumers now say they obtain cannabis legally, with only 3 percent of respondents reporting purchasing from illicit sources.
By comparison, in 2019—a year after shops opened—16 percent reported buying marijuana from an illegal source.
Health Canada, the country’s national health agency, announced the results of its 2024 Canadian Cannabis Survey on Friday. The polling was conducted from April into early July of this year and included responses from 11,666 people ages 16 and older across all of the nation’s provinces and territories.
Published annually since 2017, the survey is aimed at helping officials “better understand where support is needed the most” and informing Health Canada initiatives meant to “educate and raise awareness around the use of cannabis,” a press release says.
Seventy-two percent of those polled in the new survey said they now purchase marijuana from legal stores or online retailers—up from 37 percent in 2019.
Usual source of cannabis among people who consumed cannabis in the past 12 months, 2018 to 2024 / Health Canada
An additional 15 percent said they usually get cannabis from a social source like a friend of family member, 5 percent reported growing their own or having it specifically grown for them and 2 percent said they typically buy marijuana from a storefront on a First Nations community.
In addition to showing a general trend of consumers moving away from the illicit market, findings from the new survey also indicate that rates of driving after consuming marijuana have fallen since 2019, while daily or almost daily use rates have been largely stable among adults and youth alike.
Specifically, 18 percent of people who reported using cannabis within the past year also said they’d driven afterward, what officials described as “a significant decline from 27% in 2019.”
As for daily or near-daily use, that’s “been stable at 2018” among both adults (at about 25 percent) and youth (at about 20 percent), Health Canada said. Those who report being “at high risk” of developing problems from cannabis use has also remained stable since 2018, at about 3 percent.
Less-frequent use among youth, meanwhile, appears to have fallen slightly since legalization took effect. Among people aged 16 to 19 in the new survey, 41 percent said they’d used marijuana within the past year, compared to 43 percent last year and 44 percent in 2019 and 2020, according to Health Canada’s press release.
The average age at which Canadians first try cannabis also appears to be rising since the legalization took effect. It currently stands at 20.7 years—up from 18.9 years in 2018.
As for how consumers choose to obtain marijuana, more survey respondents listed convenience as a top factor (30 percent) than price (23 percent), while 22 percent pointed to safe supply and 16 percent said they wanted to follow the law.
Top factors that most influenced from whom cannabis was obtained, among people who consumed cannabis in the past 12 months, 2024 / Health Canada
The report also looked at Canadians’ knowledge and beliefs about cannabis, finding, for example, that 71 percent believe that daily or near daily use increases the risk for mental health problems—a figure that increased from 68 percent in 2023.
Forty percent of respondents said they were aware that there’s an association between THC levels and impairment, while 37 percent knew that legal products in Canada are tested for contaminants and 30 percent knew that edibles typically have longer effects than inhaled products.
Knowledge or beliefs regarding cannabis-associated harms, 2018 to 2024 / Health Canada
Notably, those who used marijuana within the past year were also better educated about the substance than other respondents, the report says. They were more likely to be aware that edibles have a delayed onset and longer-lasting effects, that higher THC levels mean more significant impairment and that legal products are tested for contaminants. They were also more likely to acknowledge that cannabis can be habit-forming.
Past-year users were less likely than nonusers to say that daily or almost daily use carries a higher risk of mental health issues, however, or associate cannabis use with risk of harm when pregnant or breastfeeding.
Knowledge or beliefs regarding cannabis-associated harms, among those who had and had not consumed cannabis in the past 12 months, 2024 / Health Canada
Overall, 77 percent of respondents said there was either moderate or great risk to smoking marijuana or vaping cannabis extracts regularly, while 75 percent said the same of vaping marijuana flower and 65 percent associated moderate or great risk with regularly eating or drinking cannabis.
All those activities were seen as risky by fewer respondents than regularly smoking tobacco (94 percent), using nicotine e-cigarettes (87 percent) or drinking alcohol (85 percent).
Past-year marijuana consumers were also significantly less likely to associate smoking, vaping or eating or drinking cannabis with great or moderate risk.
Another finding in the report was that cannabis use combined with drinking has steadily fallen in recent years, while use of tobacco and marijuana together has ticked up since 2023.
Past 12 months, use of alcohol and tobacco in combination with cannabis, among people who consumed cannabis in the past 12 months, 2018 to 2024 / Health Canada
The survey also asked cannabis consumers how they felt their use had affected other areas of their lives. In every category, the largest share of respondents said cannabis seemed to have no effect. But more respondents were likely in each category to say that marijuana was beneficial than harmful.
Past 12 months, effects of cannabis use, among people who consumed cannabis in the past 12 months, 2024 / Health Canada
Nevertheless, the proportion of cannabis consumers who say their use has had harmful effects on other areas their lives has slightly increased since legalization. Depending on category, between 5 percent and 10 percent of respondents reported some harmful effect.
Percentage reporting that their cannabis use had a harmful1 effect on their lives, among people who consumed cannabis in the past 12 months, 2019 to 2024 / Health Canada
One slight change to the survey that may affect year-to-year comparisons, Health Canada notes in the new report, is that the distinction between medical and nonmedical use was removed from several questions in 2023. “This served to significantly shorten the survey while still allowing responses to be disaggregated by cannabis use,” the agency explained.
Among survey areas that did specify medical use, findings indicated that a plurality of medical marijuana patients (46 percent) said cannabis allowed them to reduce their use of other medications. That number has fallen notably from 68 percent in 2018.
You can now view 2024 Canadian Cannabis Survey results. Find out how Canadians viewed and used #cannabis in 2024: https://t.co/nQhBQfTcUG pic.twitter.com/W4K1Dsr0lM
— Health Canada and PHAC (@GovCanHealth) December 6, 2024
The most common medications that respondents said marijuana allowed them to cut down on were non-opioid pain relievers (57 percent), anti-inflammatories (52 percent), sleep aids (46 percent), opioids (29 percent) and sedatives (23 percent).
Twenty-eight percent of medical marijuana patients said cannabis did not help them decrease their use of other medications, while a nearly equal share (27 percent) said the question wasn’t applicable.
The new report is the latest in ongoing efforts to track the behavioral and health impacts of legalization, which Health Canada and others have said is crucial for optimizing public health messaging and other initiatives in the era of legalization.
The 2024 Canadian Cannabis Survey results are now available. The survey examines knowledge, attitudes and patterns of cannabis use, the cannabis market, and topics related to cannabis and public safety.https://t.co/jgJOgmls8Y
— GC Newsroom (@NewsroomGC) December 6, 2024
Observers have also been watching how broader adult-use legalization impacts medical marijuana in Canada, noting, for example, patient enrollment rates declining after legalization was enacted but before retailers opened for business.
A study earlier this year, meanwhile, found similar marijuana use rates and support for legalization in both the U.S. and Canada despite the countries’ different national approaches to regulating the drug.
Another report out of Canada this year found marijuana legalization was “associated with a decline in beer sales,” suggesting a substitution effect where consumers shift from one product to the other.
A separate study last year found that the proportion of high-school students who said marijuana was easy to obtain has fallen in recent years.
Yet another recent survey found that nearly 8 in 10 Canadians (79.3 percent) said they believe psilocybin-assisted therapy is “a reasonable medical choice” to treat existential dread at the end of one’s life. Almost 2 in 3 (63.3 percent) felt the substance should be legal for medical purposes generally.