A new report from Vividata attempted to find deep insights about the behaviour of cannabis consumers in Canada.
Vividata surveyed 4,880 Canadians over the age of 19 to compile its first Canadian Cannabis Study. Since recreational cannabis was previously criminalized, it has been difficult to obtain rich consumer insights related to the category, an issue Vividata was hoping to address with the study.
“The legalization of cannabis represents the most significant change in legal structure regarding a consumer good since prohibition of alcohol ended,” says Pat Pellegrini, president and CEO of Vividata. “At the same time, we saw a gap in consumer research in this area and responded with high quality research to meet the needs of our current and expanding membership.”
The report found that 22% of Canadians currently use cannabis. Of those, one in four shopped online in the past month using a mobile platform. Perhaps predictably, 62% ate potato chips over the last month, and over-indexed on consumption of Old Dutch and Hickory Sticks compared to the rest of the population. Current cannabis users also over-index on consumption of podcasts, being much more likely to be a regular listener than the general population.
Aside from current users, 16% of Canadians don’t use cannabis, but are likely to following legalization. Among these potential users, 59% have used some form of pain reliever over the last month, with one in three using vitamin, mineral or herbal supplements daily. In terms of media consumption, 41% watched content on YouTube over the previous week.
Among the entirety of the population, the report found that 52% of adults are in favour of legalization, with 34% opposed and 14% still undecided. Canadians also seem to be in favour of strong regulations around safety, consumption and packaging: 88% say people should not drive after consuming cannabis, 87% say rules around public consumption should be at least as strict as they are for alcohol and 81% say packaging needs to specify cannabis’ effects on behaviour.
