What is the impact of the price of cannabis on consumption habits in the population? The National Institute of Public Health of Quebec has focused on this issue to guide public policies framing the use of this psychoactive substance in Quebec. The price of cannabis is a crucial factor on which decision -makers can act to achieve the objectives of laws framing the use of cannabis. However, the determination of prices is a fine calibration. This is what emerges from the summary of knowledge published on his website.
Scientific literature suggests that too low prices could promote the consumption of this substance, while too high prices could maintain or increase supply to illegal sources.
According to the analysis of this literature on the subject around the world, regardless of the legal status of cannabis in these countries, whether prohibited, decriminalized or legal, the findings are the same and they could certainly shed light on decision -making in Quebec:
- A decrease in cannabis prices is generally associated with an increase in demand, but the extent of this effect may vary depending on the consumer. Among other things, young people and people who consume cannabis regularly would be more sensitive to the price than adults and people who consume occasionally.
- Legal cannabis is preferred to illegal cannabis. Consumers would be willing, up to a certain point, to compromise compared to the price in order to consume a legal product.
- When prices are high, a minus number of people aged 14 to 22 would begin to consume cannabis. However, high cannabis prices do not seem to have a direct effect on the rate of stopping cannabis consumption.
- The prices of cannabis, through taxation, could influence the THC content of the products sold and consumed. A taxation model taking into account the content of THC (by taxing more products with higher THC) could contribute to a decrease in the consumption of the most powerful products.
The Quebec context
In Quebec, according to the results of the Quebec 2023 cannabis survey, the proportion of active cannabis consumers getting to illegal sources increased from 22.2 %, in 2019, to 6.5 %, in 2023.
Among the people aged 21 and over having supplied to an illegal source in 2023, almost 77 % did because of the price, 49 % due to the absence of products sought in legal sources, 31 % to remain anonymous, and 30 % due to loyalty at their source.
Recall that the cannabis law entered into force in Canada in October 2018 and that, in Quebec, the entire distribution and retail has been entrusted to the Quebec cannabis company (SQDC). Its mission is to “ensure the sale of cannabis from a health protection perspective, in order to integrate consumers into the lawful cannabis market and maintain them, without promoting cannabis consumption”.
Read the summary of knowledge.
