More and more, it seems Canadian cannabis consumers are turning to legal sources to re-up their supply.
The Canadian Cannabis Survey 2020 has found, of the number of Canadians who reported using cannabis in the past 12 months, 41 per cent say they had bought from a legal storefront. In 2019 that number sat at less than a quarter (24 per cent).
"What we're seeing is actually really remarkable, more and more people are purchasing at least some of their cannabis from legal sources like retail storefronts or the Ontario Cannabis Store," said Daniel Bear, a drug policy researcher at Humber College.
"At this point we're about 70 per cent who have at least tried some from a legal source," said Bear. "And many people, I believe about 40 per cent or so, are regularly buying most of their cannabis from a legal source."
In fact, when you look at the frequency numbers from Statistics Canada, 53 per cent of Canadian cannabis users say they 'mostly' or 'always' buy from legal or licenses sources while 55 per cent say they 'never' use illegal, unlicensed sources.
Bear said he believes there are a few main factors in this shift.
"One is that the price of legal cannabis is dropping, and rather significantly at that," said Bear. "And the other is that we're seeing quality of cannabis begin to rise."
Bear said early on in legalization, a lot of customers were complaining about the quality of legal cannabis and that it was too dry.
"You know we're seeing now that Ontario has more than 250 stores," Bear said. "We've really ramped up since April 2019 when [Ontario] opened the first retail storefronts."
"And as people are able to easily access cannabis at local stores they will go to those stores, they will make it part of their normal consumption patterns to visit the local retail stores that serve the cannabis products they're looking for at the prices they want."
Now despite the Federal numbers Ontario's Auditor General says the black market still does appear strong in this province.
In a report released earlier this month, Bonnie Lysyk found about 80 per cent of cannabis sales here in Ontario during 2019 and 2020 came from underground sources and quality, not price, was the main factor in buyers choosing an the illegal market over the Ontario Cannabis Store or other licensed pot shops.
