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Prices, Convenience May Drive Cannabis Consumers to Illegal Market
People who bought nonmedical cannabis from illegal rather than legal sources cited doing so for better prices and convenience, according to a study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
“Cannabis legalization is one of the most notable substance use policies in several decades,” said study corresponding author David Hammond, PhD, of University of Waterloo School of Public Health Sciences in Canada. “Transitioning consumers from illegal to legal retail sources is a primary goal of legalization. Indeed, many of the potential benefits of legalization—including product standards, revenue for legitimate businesses, reducing burden on the criminal justice system—depend upon shifting consumers to legal cannabis sources.”
The study investigated reasons for purchasing illegal cannabis among consumers in Canada and the handful of US states with established legal retail cannabis markets as of September 2019: Alaska, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Data stemmed from the 2019 and 2020 International Cannabis Policy Study, which collected data from 16- to 65-year-olds who were asked how much of the marijuana they used in the past 12 months was purchased from legal sources. Participants who indicated any value other than 100% were prompted to choose from a list as to why they purchased cannabis from illegal sources.
The top-rated answer for respondents from both the United States (27.3% in 2019 and 26.7% in 2020) and Canada (35.9% in 2019 and 34.6% in 2020) was “legal sources had higher prices,” according to the study. Also high on the list were “legal sources were less convenient” and “legal stores were too far away/there are none where I live,” with the percentage of respondents naming these reasons ranging from 10.6% to 19.8%.
In the United States, certain barriers perceived by consumers increased between 2019 and 2020: slow delivery rose from 5% to 8%, and requiring a credit card, from 4% to 6%.
More than 10% of respondents in both the United States and Canada said the pandemic restricted their ability to buy legally in 2020.
“At the same time, legal cannabis became available via delivery and/or curbside pickup in several Canadian provinces and some US states during the pandemic,” researchers wrote. “In the United States, the proportion citing inconvenience as a barrier also decreased slightly (18% to 16%), whereas slow delivery time increased significantly from 5% to 8%. It is possible that supply chain issues during the pandemic contributed to shipping delays in some states.”
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