This Study Looks At How Canadians Use Cannabis For Health And Wellness

The results of Vivintel’s latest study “The Canadian Cannabis Study: Post-legalization Usage & Opinions” are in. The report looks at how Canadians are using cannabis for health and wellness.

Here are the top three conclusions from the study:

• In Canada, there is a high rate of self-prescription: 71% (nearly 1.9 million) of Canadians using cannabis for medicinal reasons did not have a prescription from a medical professional.
• For a vast majority of Canadians who used cannabis as a remedy, treatment or therapy (82%, or over 2 million), the plant was "more" or "somewhat more" effective than modern medicine.
• There is a huge gap in the use of cannabis across many ailments, and age is a noticeable factor in determining which medical condition cannabis is being used for. For example, of the nearly 9 million Canadians suffering from stress and anxiety, only 15% use cannabis as a form of treatment, and most of them are millennials.

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Rahul Sethi, Director of Insights at Vivintel told Benzinga that education around the benefits of cannabis for health and wellness is still very much lacking for Canadians.

“As revealed in this most recent report, 42% of Canadians don’t know the difference between CBD and THC; and among those who do, there is still a significant proportion that do not clearly understand the benefits of each of these compounds.”

Sethi calls for cannabis brands, media, and government agencies to “play their respective roles in educating Canadians.”

The report also reveals that over a third of Canadians (38%) consuming cannabis are sourcing their supplies from the illicit market, despite the fact that adult-use cannabis has been legal in Canada since October of 2018, and for medicinal purposes, since July 2001.

“Vivintel’s data shows that lack of trust, privacy concerns and supply shortages within the legal market are the key drivers for cannabis users to source cannabis products from the black market,” Sethi said.

“Due to these reasons, it’s going to be a battle ground for some time to come for brands to gain consumer trust.  Without doubt, Legalization 2.0 will create a new surge of excitement around cannabis. Edibles, extracts and concentrates provide an ease of use and a more social form of consumption that new and potential cannabis users are much more likely to use than the bud or flower.”