How popular is a file cannabis Heritage market? New report in Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs Confirm what many know. High prices and inconvenience encourage consumers to look for illegal sources of cannabis. In other words, the barrier to legal cannabis makes the old market more attractive to consumers.
The researchers from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. They looked at data from the 2019 and 2020 International Cannabis Policy Study. In an observational study, participants reported themselves how much cannabis they used and legally purchased.
Participants cited high prices as the number one reason for avoiding legal sources. In Canada, the preference for vintage markets was nearly 40% versus just over 25% for American consumers.
The second most cited annoyance was that the legal sources were too far away. Or that there were no stores in which the participants lived. Other reasons have been cited less but are still important. These include a desire to say anonymously, avoiding radioactive cannabis or loyalty to old farmers.
Making the cannabis heritage market unwelcome
Making the cannabis heritage market undesirable is one of Canada’s important goals legislation. Besides “protecting children”, the whole goal was to take down BC Bud. From day one, the government favored a top-down licensed product system.
Study co-author David Hammond, PhD, Professor and Chair of Undergraduate Research at the University of Waterloo says the school Public Health Sciences.
“Switching consumers from illegal retail sources to legal retail sources is a primary goal of legalization. Indeed, many of the potential benefits of legalization—including product standards, legitimate business revenue, and reduced burden on the criminal justice system—depend on diverting consumers to Legal sources of cannabis. Given the importance of this issue, it is surprising that there is little empirical evidence on the factors that determine consumers source their products in the legal market.”
Future research is required
The popularity of the cannabis heritage market may falter in the future. As a continent cannabis industry As they develop and mature, there is a potential for this data to change. For example, a survey of Canadian consumers in 2022 may yield different results than in 2019. The number of retail stores in 2019 was much lower.
“As markets mature, the number of stores per capita tends to increase, and inconvenience is expected to become less of an obstacle. Regulators will need to balance public health and criminal justice priorities in order to create a competitive legal cannabis market that encourages legal purchasing.”
Make Cannabis Heritage Market famous again
Research does not speculate on whether customers are justified in their choices. For example, Canada’s high barriers to entry deter many cannabis entrepreneurs. BC Bud’s loyal customers will prefer the old market no matter how attractive the government is trying to make companies out of weeds.