{"id":3243,"date":"2019-02-26T12:11:06","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T16:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/?p=3243"},"modified":"2019-02-26T12:11:06","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T16:11:06","slug":"how-canadians-are-buying-cannabis-and-getting-high-now-that-its-legal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/26\/how-canadians-are-buying-cannabis-and-getting-high-now-that-its-legal\/","title":{"rendered":"How Canadians Are Buying Cannabis And Getting High Now That It\u2019s Legal"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael J. Armstrong<\/strong>
\nGuest Writer<\/p>\n

There was much speculation throughout 2018 about Canada\u2019s soon-to-be-legal cannabis market. But only recently has data become available that shows what cannabis consumers really want, and actually buy.<\/p>\n

For example, Statistics Canada recently released its\u00a0National Cannabis Survey<\/a>. The most-discussed finding is that cannabis use did not jump after legalization in October. The proportion of Canadians using it stayed around 15 per cent.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s good news for politicians who supported legalization, and for\u00a0physicians concerned<\/a>\u00a0that legality would prompt surging usage.<\/p>\n

Product quality is key<\/em><\/strong>
\nThe survey also asked consumers their top three reasons for choosing cannabis suppliers. Concern about product quality and safety was the top-ranked reason.<\/p>\n

That priority should help licensed producers\u00a0compete against black markets<\/a>. Their products undergo extensive\u00a0chemical testing<\/a>\u00a0that underground growers avoid. But excessive recalls\u00a0for labelling<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0contamination problems<\/a>\u00a0could erode that edge.<\/p>\n

Finding products with the desired ingredient mix, and potency, was the number three consumer priority. That factor could also benefit legal producers. Their government-mandated labels specify that information.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo credit: Sharon McCutcheon\/Unsplash.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But the desired products must be available.\u00a0Product shortages<\/a>\u00a0are an ongoing problem.<\/p>\n

And cannabis foods and drinks aren\u2019t yet legal. That\u2019s a crucial gap, as U.S. experience shows. Edibles constitute\u00a043 per cent of demand<\/a>\u00a0in Colorado and California.<\/p>\n

Diverging purchases<\/strong><\/em>
\nOther consumer preferences appear in Health Canada\u2019s\u00a0fourth quarter sales data<\/a>. They show recreational cannabis customers strongly prefer dry cannabis (flowers and leaves) over cannabis oils. Sales were split 74 per cent dry and 26 per cent oil.\u00a0New Brunswick<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Qu\u00e9bec<\/a>\u00a0both reported even stronger dry preferences of 90 per cent.<\/p>\n

By contrast, medical clients favour oils. They bought just 28 per cent dry cannabis. Producers likely knew medical and recreational preferences would differ. But the extent may have surprised them and contributed to dry product shortages.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, a note to Health Canada: Kudos for posting monthly sales and inventory numbers. One suggestion: please report the monthly cannabis harvest too. Knowing the \u201cfresh\u201d cannabis count each month would let us gauge the industry\u2019s capacity and growth. Currently, those vital figures are impossible to estimate reliably.<\/p>\n

Recreational consumers also prefer small purchases, well below the 30-gram possession limit. Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s mostly in-store transactions averaged just 6.6 grams and $47 each.<\/p>\n

Those numbers suggest customers were sampling small amounts. Experienced users might have sought replacements for existing, formerly illegal favourites. Meanwhile, first-timers explored the newly legal selection.<\/p>\n

Ontario\u2019s cannabis agency hasn\u2019t released such sales details. But\u00a0combining<\/a>\u00a0its<\/a>\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Statistics Canada sales data<\/a>\u00a0suggest its orders were larger, possibly because they were all online. They perhaps averaged $70 in October and $100 in November.<\/p>\n

Price penalties<\/strong><\/em>
\nWhere underground markets have an edge is pricing.\u00a0Statistics Canada estimates average nationwide prices<\/a>at around $9.70 per gram for legal products versus $6.51 for illegal ones. That\u2019s unfortunate. Low price was the second most important criterion for cannabis consumers.<\/p>\n

\"Canadians<\/a><\/p>\n

Canadians prefer smoke-able or vape-able weed. Photo credit: Unsplash.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s approach is interesting here. With an average price of just $7.27 per gram, it might be losing money on sales. But it\u2019s more competitive with illegal vendors.<\/p>\n

Physical stores matter<\/strong><\/em>
\nCannabis consumers also prefer brick-and-mortar stores over online shopping. In-store purchases accounted for 80 per cent of sales in Qu\u00e9bec. They hit\u00a094 per cent in Nova Scotia<\/a>\u00a0and 95 per cent in New Brunswick.<\/p>\n

Stores let shoppers see and smell products, plus receive advice from staff. By accepting cash and retaining no customer information, they also avoid online privacy problems.<\/p>\n

The preference for physical shops, combined with their relative availability, could partly explain provincial sales differences. For example, New Brunswick\u2019s stores were plentiful, at one per 39,000 people. It had correspondingly high purchases of $6.87 per resident during October and November. Only $0.31 of that was online.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s stores were scant \u2014 one per 699,000 people. Relative to New Brunswick, its per capita sales were lower overall at $2.53, but higher online at $0.51.<\/p>\n

Ontario meanwhile had no legal stores. Its $1.54 of online sales per resident were lower than the other two provinces\u2019 overall numbers but higher than their online ones.<\/p>\n

These sales comparisons suggest the absence of legal shops diverts some cannabis users online. But most stick with black markets.<\/p>\n

The cannabis survey supports that idea. Availability of cannabis at convenient times and places were consumers\u2019 fourth and fifth highest priorities, respectively.<\/p>\n

Improving access<\/strong><\/em>
\nThis illustrates why provinces with few existing stores should open more once cannabis supplies allow. Ontario especially should let producers open their on-site shops.<\/p>\n

Ontario\u2019s plans for\u00a0same-day delivery of online orders<\/a>\u00a0would similarly boost convenience. California recently\u00a0legalized private-sector delivery<\/a>\u00a0services. Those have flourished by bringing cannabis into cities that opted out of allowing stores. (Municipalities in Ontario and B.C. that opted out might want to ponder that trend.)<\/p>\n

Naturally, other factors contributed to inter-provincial differences. Consider Prince Edward Island. It had slightly fewer stores than New Brunswick; one per 51,000 people. But it had higher per capita sales of $13.83. That success was reportedly due to it avoiding the product shortages plaguing other provinces.<\/p>\n

Store revenues also varied by province. P.E.I.\u2019s averaged $1.1 million each in the fourth quarter, whereas New Brunswick\u2019s only hit $410,000. By contrast, Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s scarce outlets averaged $2.7 million apiece.<\/p>\n

Given its similar dearth of stores, Ontario\u2019s first 25 outlets could see similar results to Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s. The\u00a0shop coming to ritzy Yorkville<\/a>\u00a0should do even better. High-end shopping, anyone?\"The<\/p>\n

Michael J. Armstrong\u00a0<\/a>is an\u00a0Associate professor of operations research, Goodman School of Business,\u00a0Brock University<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from\u00a0The Conversation<\/a>\u00a0under a Creative Commons license. Read the\u00a0original article<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael J. Armstrong Guest Writer There was much speculation throughout 2018 about Canada\u2019s soon-to-be-legal cannabis market. But only recently has data become available that shows what cannabis consumers really want, and actually buy. For […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-commentary"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg?fit=600%2C338&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg?fit=600%2C338&ssl=1",600,338,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg",600,338,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg",600,338,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1",300,169,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg?fit=600%2C338&ssl=1",600,338,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg?fit=600%2C338&ssl=1",600,338,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg?fit=600%2C338&ssl=1",600,338,true],"mh-magazine-slider":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg?resize=600%2C338&ssl=1",600,338,true],"mh-magazine-content":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg?resize=600%2C338&ssl=1",600,338,true],"mh-magazine-large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg?resize=600%2C338&ssl=1",600,338,true],"mh-magazine-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg?resize=326%2C245&ssl=1",326,245,true],"mh-magazine-small":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Cannabis-Feature-Image-new.jpg?resize=80%2C60&ssl=1",80,60,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"adminrfm","author_link":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/author\/adminrfm\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Commentary<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Michael J. Armstrong Guest Writer There was much speculation throughout 2018 about Canada\u2019s soon-to-be-legal cannabis market. But only recently has data become available that shows what cannabis consumers really want, and actually buy. For [...]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3245,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243\/revisions\/3245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}