09 January 2022 |

Canadian Cannabis Data

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Canadian Cannabis Data

Breaking down the data from the latest health Canada cannabis 2021 report… 

1) Canadians Love Cannabis

The proportion of people using cannabis in the past 12 months was approximately double among people who were born in Canada (29%) compared to people who were not born in Canada (15%).

Of the 10,000+ Canadians surveyed, the following is how frequently Canadians are consuming cannabis today.

Daily = Consumes cannabis daily (19%)

Weekly = Consumes cannabis less than 6 times each week (27%)

Monthly = Consumes cannabis less than 3 times each month (54%)

2) Thoughts On THC

A question that has long been debated inside the cannabis industry is the shortcomings of using THC as a means to measure the quality of cannabis.

Regardless of what anyone in the industry thinks today, what is clear is that a large cohort of consumers continue to measure the value of a cannabis product relative to the amount of THC present in the product.

A clear indication of the divided opinions on this subject — just 59% of consumers think a cannabis product’s THC profile is an indication of the strength of a cannabis product, an increase from 55% in 2020.

The opportunity: The Canadian cannabis industry is by no means past the point of no return when it comes to educating consumers on the limitations of using THC as a means to measure a product’s value.

3) Consuming Cannabis Beverages

Despite Canadian producers investing millions of dollars to produce cannabis beverages, in 2020 just 6% of the Canadians surveyed said they had consumed a cannabis beverage in the last year.

In 2021, the percentage of participants who reported having consumed a cannabis beverage increased to an astounding 16% — a 2.66x increase.

Why was 2021 such a stellar year for cannabis beverages in Canada?

This form factor was likely the biggest benefactor of the declining demand to smoke cannabis during the pandemic.

Additionally, it’s my perspective that the success of the “education campaigns” from the Canadian government whereby they emphasized the dangers of smoking cannabis is an important factor.

76% of the participants surveyed said they believe smoking cannabis can be harmful & with smoking off the table, cannabis edibles & cannabis beverages are the natural alternative for any concerned consumers.

4) Why Consume Cannabis?

29% of the Canadians who participated in this study reported that they increased the quantity of cannabis they were consuming as a result of Covid.

When asked why, the following were the top five responses:

5) Social Acceptance

Canada has done an amazing job demonstrating to the world that cannabis should be made legal, however, despite the fact that all adults in Canada can now access cannabis products — cannabis still remains heavily stigmatized.

The good news, however, is that this stigma is slowly being erased as is evident by the fact that 68% of Canadians see it as socially acceptable to occasionally consume cannabis edibles & 67% for cannabis flower.

Currently, 49% of Canadians see it as being socially acceptable to regularly consume cannabis edibles & cannabis flower vs the 62% of Canadians who see it as being socially acceptable to regularly consume alcoholic beverages.

For reference, the Canadian Institute for Health Information in 2019 showed that 10 Canadians died in hospital every day from harm caused by substance use, with 75% of these deaths related to alcohol.

This highlights just how far we have to go before there is more widespread recognition of the safety profile of cannabis.

Bonus Section

Top Cannabis Stat: Since 2014, states have collected more than $10 billion USD in tax revenue from adult-use cannabis sales.

Top Cannabis Tweet: What is the right term to describe why adults choose to consume cannabis? Nick Pateras from Materia Ventures had an excellent tweet describing how Germany is labeling this.

Top Cannabis Article: New York is on course to create one of the largest cannabis markets in the world. Tremaine Wright from the Cannabis Control Board shared some insights into what we can expect.

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