Canadian Youth Say Cannabis Is Harder to Access Post Legalization

Recent research conducted among Canadian youth has revealed an interesting phenomenon regarding the accessibility of cannabis. During the years when the country legalized cannabis for adults and opened retail stores nationwide, as well as during the social distancing period caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a significant decrease in the ease of access to cannabis among youth.

Despite the growing number of studies on adult cannabis use since its legalization in 2018, the authors of the study, published this month in the Archives of Public Health, point out a lack of research dedicated to changes in youth perceptions of cannabis accessibility during the same period.

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Methodology of the Study

Using data from the COMPASS study, which included students from ninth to twelfth grade in high schools in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec, researchers analyzed responses from three periods: 2018–19, 2019–20, and 2020–21. They considered responses to two questions: “Do you think it would be difficult or easy for you to obtain cannabis if you wanted to?” and “How often have you used cannabis or hemp in the last 12 months?”

During this period, the overall frequency of Canadian youth who stated that access to cannabis is easy dropped from 51.0 percent to 37.4 percent – a decrease of over one quarter (26.7 percent). At the same time, researchers noticed that “students who used cannabis more frequently reported that access to it is easy.”

Impact of Legalization and Pandemic on Youth Access

The impact of legalization and the pandemic on cannabis accessibility among youth is complex and multi-dimensional. For instance, despite the development of nationwide retail cannabis sales, the percentage of current cannabis users, defined as usage in the past month, also fell during the study period, from 12.7 percent in 2018–19 to 7.5 percent in 2020–21.

The study also revealed that students reported easier access to cannabis the older they were, especially among those who used cannabis. Perceived ease of access was “somewhat more difficult in the initial period of the pandemic,” but increased as the pandemic prolonged.

“Although the percentage of youth reporting that cannabis is easily accessible has declined since legalization and throughout the initial and ongoing period of the pandemic,” the report concludes, “the likelihood that underage young people will report that cannabis is easily accessible increases as they age in high school.”

The authors noted that declines in perceived cannabis accessibility by Canadian youth over time “are consistent with data from the USA showing that the perception of ease of access to cannabis is on a downward trend (2002–2015).”

“These data also seem to converge with representative data from seven quarters of the National Cannabis Survey (NCS),” they added, “showing declines in illegally sourced cannabis among Canadians from the pre-legalization to the post-legalization period (respectively 51.7% to 40.1%).”

However, the authors did not attribute the observed decrease in accessibility solely to age limits in Canadian cannabis law or declines in the illegal market, noting that the pandemic or other factors could have played a role.

“While this may be an indicator that components of the Cannabis Act effectively restrict cannabis availability to underage youth,” they wrote, “we are unable to determine whether this could have also been influenced by the onset of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, which limited socializing opportunities among peers, considering that peers are one of the most common sources through which underage young people gain access to cannabis.”

Educational Implications for Canadian Youth and Future Efforts

Regarding education, the study suggests that “future cannabis control efforts may focus on developing and implementing interventions targeted at Canadian youth, tailored to various age groups and adapted to those with or without experience in using cannabis,” noting that “there was no significant difference in perceived access between males and females.”

The study’s authors are three researchers from the University of Waterloo School of Public Health Sciences, one from Université Laval in Quebec City, one from Brock University’s Department of Health Sciences, and one from the Applied Research Division Public Health Agency of Canada.

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