School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada.
Canadian Centre On Substance Use and Addiction, 75 Albert St, Suite 500, Ottawa, ON, K1P 5E7, Canada.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Nov 8;22(1):2048. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-14492-z.
Consumer perceptions of legal cannabis products may drive willingness to purchase from the illegal or legal market; however, little is known on this topic. The current study examined perceptions of legal products among Canadian cannabis consumers over a 3-year period following federal legalization of non-medical cannabis in 2018.
Data were analyzed from Canadian respondents in the International Cannabis Policy Study, a repeat cross-sectional survey conducted in 2019-2021. Respondents were 15,311 past 12-month cannabis consumers of legal age to purchase cannabis. Weighted logistic regression models examined the association between perceptions of legal cannabis and province of residence, and frequency of cannabis use over time.
In 2021, cannabis consumers perceived legal cannabis to be safer to buy (54.0%), more convenient to buy (47.8%), more expensive (47.2%), safer to use (46.8%) and higher quality (29.3%) than illegal cannabis. Except for safety of purchasing, consumers had more favourable perceptions of legal cannabis in 2021 than 2019 across all outcomes. For example, consumers had higher odds of perceiving legal cannabis as more convenient to buy in 2021 than 2019 (AOR = 3.09, 95%CI: 2.65,3.60). More frequent consumers had less favourable perceptions of legal cannabis than less frequent consumers.
Three years since legalization, Canadian cannabis consumers generally had increasingly favourable perceptions of legal vs. illegal products - except for price - with variation across the provinces and frequency of cannabis use. To achieve public health objectives of legalization, federal and provincial governments must ensure that legal cannabis products are preferred to illegal, without appealing to non-consumers.
消费者对合法大麻产品的看法可能会影响他们从非法或合法市场购买的意愿；然而，关于这一主题的了解甚少。本研究在 2018 年加拿大联邦将非医用大麻合法化后的 3 年内，调查了加拿大大麻消费者对合法产品的看法。
分析了 2019-2021 年期间，参与国际大麻政策研究的加拿大受访者的数据。该研究是一项重复的横断面调查，调查对象是年龄在可合法购买大麻的 15311 名过去 12 个月的大麻消费者。加权逻辑回归模型检验了对合法大麻的看法与居住省份和随着时间推移大麻使用频率之间的关系。
2021 年，大麻消费者认为合法大麻在购买时更安全（54.0%）、更方便（47.8%）、更昂贵（47.2%）、更安全（46.8%）和更高质量（29.3%），而非非法大麻。除了购买的安全性外，2021 年与 2019 年相比，消费者对合法大麻的看法在所有结果上都更加有利。例如，2021 年消费者认为合法大麻在购买时更方便的可能性比 2019 年更高（AOR=3.09，95%CI：2.65，3.60）。更频繁使用大麻的消费者对合法大麻的看法比不太频繁使用大麻的消费者更不利。
在合法化三年后，加拿大大麻消费者对合法与非法产品的看法总体上越来越有利，除了价格外，不同省份和大麻使用频率也存在差异。为了实现合法化的公共卫生目标，联邦和省政府必须确保合法大麻产品优于非法产品，而不吸引非消费者。
