TORONTO'S POT USE: How much pot is consumed in your Toronto neighbourhood? Check our interactive map
From downtown’s millennial tower dwellers, to the scions of leafy Rosedale, to the sons and daughters of the Beaches, Toronto’s top pot users congregate by age amid some of the most affluent neighbourhoods in the city.
A comprehensive new survey released Thursday shows marijuana use in Toronto — and across the country — is highest among 19- to 34-year-olds, with consumption being amped up even further as their income and education levels rise.
Sally Smith smokes marijuana during a 4/20 rally at Nathan Phillips Square on April 20, a high holiday in cannabis culture, and the last such event before recreational pot use becomes legal on Oct. 17. (Carlos Osorio / Toronto Star File Photo)
“There’s an age group thing going on here,” says Rupen Seoni, a senior vice president with Environics Analytics, which produced the research.
“Younger people living in more affluent parts of the city are more likely to use than people living in other parts of the city,” Seoni says.
The data paints a wide-ranging portrait of Canada’s marijuana scene — medicinal and illicit — three months before its recreational use becomes legal across the country on Oct. 17.
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How do you think the legalization of recreational marijuana will impact pot use in Canada?
The information — most of which will be offered by subscription to groups with interests in the emerging market that legalization will trigger — touches on dozens of elements of use and distribution and drills down to the postal code level right across the nation.
Among other things, it shows:
41 per cent of Canadians under 35 have consumed cannabis at least once;
29 per cent of all Canadians older than 19 have tried the drug;
There is a $3.9 billion marijuana market in Canada with the average price for a gram of pot being $7.36 nationwide;
About 141.7 million joints could be rolled from the amount of cannabis consumed annually in Toronto, the equivalent of 2,050 CN Towers if splifs were stacked on top of each other.
Seoni says he cannot confidently predict at this time whether cannabis use will increase after legalization. But public health records show that use of the drug in Colorado and Washington has not risen appreciatively since it was legalized in the two U.S. states in 2012.
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Seoni says the factors driving cannabis use are uniform across the country and discernible imbibing concentrations emerge on survey maps of every Canadian city.
“What’s remarkable is when you look region by region, city by city, the propensity to use, or the propensity to have used at some point, is pretty similar,” he says.
“When you look over 35 (years old, for example) pretty much every region it’s somewhere around 25 per cent of the population … regardless of how you slice and dice.”
Even in Quebec, where opposition to legalization has been strongest, usage among those 19 to 34 is consistent with the same age cohort in other regions of the country, Seoni says.
“It’s the older age group in Quebec that’s driving that (opposition) because the younger people don’t look that different from the rest of the country,” he says.
Seoni says this consistently elevated use of cannabis among 19- to 34-year-olds may simply reflect a high comfort level with the drug among the country’s millennials.
“It may be more than just money and (the) desire to party, it could also just be acceptance,” he says.
Though age and affluence are key determinants of usage, ethnicity also plays a major role, Seoni says.
For example, in youthful and wealthy areas of Markham, cannabis use runs below 29 per cent because of low usage among the large East Asian population in that city.
Education levels are also correlated with usage, but it’s unclear why or to what degree, Seoni says.
The education connection, he says, may simply reflect the reality that younger Canadians today tend to be better educated than previous generations.
“Whether you actually see higher rates as you go up the education scale among younger people … it’s kind of mixed here.”
The data, Seoni says, will be of interest to many different groups, especially as recreational pot becomes legally available in the fall.
“Whether you’re a producer, whether you’re the Ontario Cannabis Store, whether you’re public health trying to promote responsible use,” Seoni says. “That fine-grained understanding of the group that you’re trying to talk to and their propensity to use, you really have to look at the details.”
Seoni says the “CannabisInsights” data also provides information on medicinal use of pot, the various motivations people have for imbibing, potential post-legalization habits and the effects of consumption. Read more: Calgarians aged 19 to 34 very likely to have used cannabis, survey suggests Pot use highest among Millennials in Edmonton, lowest in communities with high immigrant populations Millennials are the most likely generation to have tried a toke
The database was built from a 2018 survey by Vividata of some 5,000 people — a subset of the company’s much larger and ongoing survey of Canadian print media readership — on their use and attitudes towards marijuana.
Information from that survey was then plugged into Environics’ own data model, which tracks about 40,000 demographic variables in each of the approximately 860,000 postal code areas across the country.
“Based on the kinds of people who live in (any given postal code) neighbourhood, we would expect that X per cent of them consume cannabis, X per cent of them buy potato chips, etcetera,” Seoni says. Joe Hall is a reporter and feature writer based in Toronto. Reach him on email: gjhall@thestar.ca
VANCOUVER—While baby boomers may be famous for regaling their kids with stories of the ’60s, millennials — both in Vancouver and across the country — are the most likely generation to have tried cannabis, according to a new survey released Thursday.
And whether it’s in the single-family expanses of South Vancouver, amongst the dense residential towers of the West End, or under the 10,000 travelling crows along Commercial Dr., pockets of the cannabis-curious exist in every neighbourhood across the city.
A man smokes three joints at once while attending the 4-20 annual marijuana celebration, in Vancouver, B.C. A new study shows the millennial generation is the most likely group to have tried cannabis. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press)
“There’s an age group thing going on here,” said Rupen Seoni, a senior vice-president with Environics Analytics, the company behind the research.
The survey suggests millennial experimentation with cannabis transcends median income, housing type, education and urban density.
It also shows:
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41 per cent of Canadians under 35 have consumed cannabis at least once;
29 per cent of all Canadians older than 19 have tried the drug;
There is a $3.9 billion marijuana market in Canada with the average price for a gram of pot being $7.36 nationwide;
About 57.8 million joints could be rolled from the amount of cannabis consumed annually in Metro Vancouver — nearly 160 times the height of Grouse Mountain, if the single-paper spliffs were stacked on top of one another.
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How do you think the legalization of recreational marijuana will impact pot use in Canada?
Donald MacPherson, executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, said that while data showing single-time cannabis use may not present an accurate snapshot of today’s consumer landscape, British Columbia is nevertheless a famously easygoing province when it comes to pot.
“All classes use it,” he said in an interview. “It’s very, very available in British Columbia. You don’t have to work very hard to get it.”
MacPherson compared social stigma around cannabis use in B.C. to that of alcohol, although he noted that data from Statistics Canada on frequent use tell a slightly different story.
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According to those numbers, slightly more than 14 per cent of British Columbians have used cannabis in the past 12 months, whereas more than three-quarters of B.C. residents ages 15 or older reported having used alcohol in that same time period.
Nevertheless, MacPherson said, “in a recreational or social setting, (cannabis) is fairly openly used in B.C.”
Seoni said the Environics Analytics survey shows factors driving cannabis use are uniform across the country.
“What’s remarkable is when you look region by region, city by city ... the propensity to have used at some point is pretty similar,” he said, noting one-in-four people aged 35 and older in every region across the country reported having tried cannabis, “regardless of how you slice and dice.”
Even in Quebec, where opposition to legalization has been strongest, use among those 19 to 34 is consistent with the same age cohort in other regions of the country, Seoni said.
“It’s the older age group in Quebec that’s driving that (opposition) because the younger people don’t look that different from the rest of the country,” he said.
Seoni said reports of a consistently elevated experience with cannabis from 19- to 34-year-olds may simply reflect a high comfort level with the drug among the country’s millennials.
“It may be more than just money and (the) desire to party, it could also just be acceptance,” he said.
While age appears to be the most useful indicator for whether a person has used cannabis, Seoni said a web of factors including affluence, ethnicity and education exert influence as well.
The education connection, he said, may simply reflect the reality that younger Canadians today tend to be better educated than previous generations.
“Whether you actually see higher rates as you go up the education scale among younger people … it’s kind of mixed here.” Read more: What’s that smell? In wealthy neighbourhoods it’s most likely weed Calgarians aged 19 to 34 very likely to have used cannabis, survey suggests Pot use highest among Millennials in Edmonton, lowest in communities with high immigrant populations
Seoni said the “CannabisInsights” data set also provides information on medicinal use of pot, the various motivations people have for imbibing, potential post-legalization habits and the effects of consumption.
The database was built from a survey by the Vividata of some 5,000 people — a subset of the company’s much larger and ongoing survey of Canadian print media readership — on their use and attitudes toward marijuana.
Information from that survey was then plugged into Environics’ own data model, which tracks about 40,000 demographic variables in each of the approximately 860,000 postal code areas across the country. Perrin Grauer is a Vancouver-based reporter covering Canada’s cannabis economy. Follow him on Twitter: @perringrauer Joe Hall is a reporter and feature writer based in Toronto. Reach him on email: gjhall@thestar.ca
EDMONTON–Communities with high immigrant populations tend to smoke less weed in Edmonton, according to a new survey.
A comprehensive survey released Thursday with research from Environics Analytics shows marijuana use across the country is highest among 19- to 34-year-olds.
That age group indulges fairly consistently throughout the Edmonton region, but less so in Mill Woods and in communities north of 137 Avenue.
“Mill Woods is highly ethnic, and so is north of Yellowhead Trail — Castle Downs and other places,” said urban planner and University of Alberta professor Sandeep Agrawal.
U of A sociologist Rob Shields said a recent census shows the north side is a mixture of new Canadians and couples with children.
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How do you think the legalization of recreational marijuana will impact pot use in Canada?
The survey shows little connection between marijuana use and income in Edmonton. While use is higher than average in lower-income neighbourhoods around 118 Avenue, it’s also high in affluent Sherwood Park, as well as the university area and east side communities like Capilano.
“To me, that’s interesting — the relatively even quality of this,” Shields said.
The data paints a wide-ranging portrait of Canada’s marijuana scene three months before recreational use becomes legal across the country on Oct. 17.
The information — most of which will be offered by subscription to groups with interests in the emerging market that legalization will trigger — touches on dozens of elements of use and distribution and drills down to the postal code level right across the nation.
Among other things, it shows:
41 per cent of Canadians under 35 have consumed cannabis at least once;
29 per cent of all Canadians older than 19 have tried the drug;
Article Continued Below
there is a $3.9 billion marijuana market in Canada, with the average price for a gram of pot being $7.36 nationwide;
and more than 38 million joints could be rolled from the amount of cannabis consumed annually in Edmonton, if each joint weighed 0.43 grams.
Rupen Seoni, a senior vice-president with Environics Analytics, said he cannot confidently predict at this time whether cannabis use will increase after legalization.
But public health records show that use of the drug in Colorado and Washington has not risen appreciatively since it was legalized in the two U.S. states in 2012.
Seoni said the factors driving cannabis use are uniform across the country and discernible imbibing concentrations emerge on survey maps of every Canadian city.
“What’s remarkable is when you look region by region, city by city, the propensity to use, or the propensity to have used at some point, is pretty similar,” he says.
“When you look over 35 (years old, for example) pretty much every region it’s somewhere around 25 per cent of the population … regardless of how you slice and dice.”
Even in Quebec, where opposition to legalization has been strongest, usage among those 19 to 34 is consistent with the same age cohort in other regions of the country, Seoni says.
“It’s the older age group in Quebec that’s driving that (opposition) because the younger people don’t look that different from the rest of the country,” he says.
Seoni says this consistently elevated use of cannabis among 19- to 34-year-olds may simply reflect a high comfort level with the drug among the country’s millennials.
“It may be more than just money and (the) desire to party, it could also just be acceptance,” he says.
Though age and affluence are key determinants of usage, ethnicity also plays a major role, Seoni says.
For example, in youthful and wealthy areas of Markham, cannabis use runs below 29 per cent because of low usage among the large East Asian population in that city.
Education levels are also correlated with usage, but it’s unclear why or to what degree, Seoni says.
The education connection, he says, may simply reflect the reality that younger Canadians today tend to be better educated than previous generations.
“Whether you actually see higher rates as you go up the education scale among younger people … it’s kind of mixed here.”
The data, Seoni says, will be of interest to many different groups, especially as recreational potbecomes legally available in the fall.
“Whether you’re a producer, whether you’re the Ontario Cannabis Store, whether you’re public health trying to promote responsible use,” Seoni says.
“That fine-grained understanding of the group that you’re trying to talk to and their propensity to use, you really have to look at the details.” Read more: What’s that smell? In wealthy neighbourhoods it’s most likely weed Calgarians aged 19 to 34 very likely to have used cannabis, survey suggests Millennials are the most likely generation to have tried a toke
Seoni says the “CannabisInsights” data set also provides information on medicinal use of pot, the various motivations people have for imbibing, potential post-legalization habits and the effects of consumption.
The database was built from a 2018 survey by Vividata of some 5,000 people — a subset of the company’s much larger and ongoing survey of Canadian print media readership — on their use and attitudes towards marijuana.
Information from that survey was then plugged into Environics’ own data model, which tracks about 40,000 demographic variables in each of the approximately 860,000 postal code areas across the country.
“Based on the kinds of people who live in (any given postal code) neighbourhood, we would expect that X per cent of them consume cannabis, X per cent of them buy potato chips, etcetera,” Seoni says.
CALGARY—When compared to the West Coast, Calgary might not appear to have a very noticeable bud culture.
The city — and Alberta as a province — is far more known for drinking than smoking, toking, or munching on edibles. Yet a new national survey released Thursday, three months before recreational cannabis use is legalized, suggests a significant number of Calgarians aged 19 to 34 have tried cannabis at least once in their lifetimes.
Hundreds of Calgarians celebrate 420 at City Hall. A recent survey suggests more than 45 per cent of respondents in downtown Calgary and the Beltline reported using cannabis at least once. (Elizabeth Cameron)
“There’s an age group thing going on here,” says Rupen Seoni, a senior vice president with polling firm Environics Analytics, which produced the research.
The data for Calgary does not show how frequently or how recently people who responded to the survey use cannabis, nor is the data weighed to account for population density.
The database was built from a 2018 survey by Vividata of some 5,000 people — a subset of the company’s much larger and ongoing survey of Canadian print media readership — on their use and attitudes toward marijuana.
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Information from that survey was then plugged into Environics’ own data model, which tracks about 40,000 demographic variables in each of the approximately 860,000 postal code areas across the country.
“Based on the kinds of people who live in (any given postal code) neighbourhood, we would expect that X per cent of them consume cannabis, X per cent of them buy potato chips, etcetera,” Seoni says.
The survey suggests more than 45 per cent of respondents to the survey in downtown Calgary and the Beltline, two areas known for high incomes and dense clusters of cannabis store applications, reported using cannabis at least once. Certain neighbourhoods in the northeast, such as Redstone, also have a high population of 19- to 34-year-olds who’ve tried the drug, but users in several wealthy downtown areas such as Upper Mount Royal aren’t as likely to have toked or smoked.
Affluence is important to consider when looking at the demographics of recreational drug use, according to Rebecca Haines-Saah, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary who specializes in public health policy as it relates to cannabis legalization. For instance, the oil-and-gas industry is known for high salaries and a hard-partying lifestyle.
“I think a recreational substance like cannabis is also part of that lifestyle,” Haines-Saah said.
She noted that 2015’s Canadian Tobacco Alcohol and Drugs Survey, conducted by Statistics Canada, showed that roughly 45 per cent of all Canadians over the age of 15 have tried cannabis at least once in their lifetime.
“This to me kind of makes sense,” Haines-Saah said of Environics’s findings. However, she cautioned that the data may be biased: people who answered the survey may be more likely to admit using cannabis, now that legalization is just three months away.
41 per cent of Canadians under 35 have consumed cannabis at least once in their lifetimes;
29 per cent of all Canadians over the age of 19 have tried the drug.
Brennan Doherty is a work and wealth reporter with StarMetro Calgary. Follow him on Twitter: @bren_doherty Joe Hall is a reporter and feature writer based in Toronto. Reach him on email: gjhall@thestar.ca
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