{"id":279463,"date":"2020-12-22T05:51:39","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T10:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=279463"},"modified":"2020-12-22T05:51:39","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T10:51:39","slug":"health-canada-releases-new-data-on-cannabis-use-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/12\/22\/health-canada-releases-new-data-on-cannabis-use-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Canada releases new data on cannabis use in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_222064\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-222064\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D2w01j9XQAAjfba.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-222064\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D2w01j9XQAAjfba.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D2w01j9XQAAjfba.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/D2w01j9XQAAjfba-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-222064\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">On October 17, 2018, the Cannabis Act came into force, providing a strict national framework for controlling the production, distribution, sale and possession of cannabis in Canada. (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CannTrust\/status\/1111321310066556928\">File Photo<\/a>: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CannTrust\/\">@CannTrust\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Government of Canada has taken a public health approach to cannabis legalization and regulation, which includes collecting data on an ongoing basis to better understand how Canadians view and use cannabis. On October 17, 2018, the\u00a0<em>Cannabis Act<\/em>\u00a0came into force, providing a strict national framework for controlling the production, distribution, sale and possession of cannabis in Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Health Canada published the results of its 2020 Canadian Cannabis Survey. Results of the survey provide a snapshot of Canadians&#8217; knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards cannabis and its use. Data were collected from April 30 to June 22, 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The survey results will help to evaluate the impact of the\u00a0<em>Cannabis Act<\/em>\u00a0and inform policy and program development, and public education and awareness activities. This important research complements data collected through Health Canada&#8217;s national drug surveillance surveys-the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/health-canada\/services\/canadian-tobacco-alcohol-drugs-survey.html\">Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/health-canada\/services\/canadian-student-tobacco-alcohol-drugs-survey.html\">Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Key findings show that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>More than half of those who use cannabis, report using it three days a month or less.<\/strong>\u00a054% reported using cannabis three days per month or less, while 18% reported daily cannabis use. Responses were unchanged from 2019.<\/li>\n<li><strong>More than half of those who use cannabis choose to obtain it through a legal source.<\/strong>\u00a041% reported legal storefront as their usual source, an increase from 24% in 2019, whereas 13% reported obtaining cannabis from a legal online source.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The COVID-19 pandemic has had some impacts on cannabis use.<\/strong>\u00a0People who used cannabis in the past 12 months were asked if their cannabis use had changed due the pandemic-56% reported using the same amount, while 22% reported using more and 22% reported using less.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Smoking remains the most common method of consuming cannabis, but it has declined while eating cannabis products has increased since 2019.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Almost 8 in 10 Canadians feel they have access to trustworthy information to make informed decisions about their cannabis use.<\/strong>\u00a0An increase from 71% in 2019 to 77% in 2020<strong>.<\/strong>\u00a0Information about the health risks associated with cannabis use is widely available and reaching Canadians.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Driving after cannabis use has decreased<\/strong>\u00a0among those who reported past 12-month cannabis use, as compared to 2019 results. 22% of those who use cannabis drove within two hours of smoking or vapourizing cannabis in their lifetime and 13% reported driving within four hours of orally ingesting cannabis in their lifetime.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The federal government will continue to conduct research and share the results with Canadians, public health officials, provinces and territories, and other stakeholders.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quick Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Health Canada commissioned the inaugural Canadian Cannabis Survey in 2017. This is the fourth cycle of the survey.<\/li>\n<li>The results of the 2020 Canadian Cannabis Survey are based on online responses from approximately 11,000 respondents aged 16 years and over across all provinces and territories.<\/li>\n<li>Data were collected on five thematic areas:\n<ul>\n<li>Knowledge, attitudes and behaviours;<\/li>\n<li>Cannabis use and products used;<\/li>\n<li>Sources and purchasing;<\/li>\n<li>Driving and cannabis; and<\/li>\n<li>Cannabis for medical purposes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The 2020 survey collected new data, including:\n<ul>\n<li>Exposure to second-hand cannabis smoke or vapour;<\/li>\n<li>Home growing or preparation of edibles in or around home;<\/li>\n<li>Types of cannabis products and portable devices used for vaping;<\/li>\n<li>Changes in consumption of other substances since cannabis for non-medical use became legal;<\/li>\n<li>Frequency of obtaining cannabis from legal and illegal sources and amount of money spent; and<\/li>\n<li>Cannabis use in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Government of Canada has taken a public health approach to cannabis legalization and regulation, which includes collecting data on &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":222175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,37,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-health","category-news","mauthors-health-canada","mauthors-government-of-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279463"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279465,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279463\/revisions\/279465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}