Exploring Associations between Cannabis Prices, Stores, and Usage after Recreational Legalization

Canada legalized recreational cannabis in October 2018, but commercial retailing took time to develop. This study first explored how self-reported cannabis use prevalence, daily use, product type use, and age of initial use changed during 2019-2023. It then analyzed whether the changes were associated with rising store numbers or falling prices.

Data on store counts, retail pricing, and cannabis use came from government reports covering 10 provinces over 5 years. Panel data linear regressions analyzed 50 province-year aggregated observations.

There were no significant changes in prevalence among males and people aged 16-24 or in the proportion using cannabis daily. Prevalence among females and people aged 25+ increased; those levels showed negative associations with prices but not stores. Dried cannabis use decreased, while edibles use increased; those also showed associations with prices but not stores. Mean initial age of use increased; it was negatively associated with prices and positively with stores.

Canada's large cannabis retail expansion was accompanied by relatively modest usage changes, most of which showed associations with falling prices but not rising store counts.