The smoking of pot grow older

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Canadians over 45 years of age represent 23 % of all cannabis users.

Christopher Nardi

Tuesday, 19 December, 2017 01:00

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Tuesday, 19 December, 2017 01:00

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OTTAWA | The face of the smoking of pot has changed. One-quarter of cannabis in Canada is now consumed by boomers over 45 years of age, while the share of young people continues to decrease.

If between 1960 and 1980, the cannabis was a ” youth market “, this is no longer the case today, says Danny Leung, director of the division of economic analysis at Statistics Canada.

“In 2015, it was estimated that people aged 45 to 64 years consumed approximately the same amount of cannabis that people in age to attend university,” explained the agency in a study published yesterday.

This is the largest evaluation of the use of cannabis that it has conducted to date, in anticipation of the legalization of the drug next summer.

Baby boomers

The figures in the report released speak for themselves. If they represent essentially the full-fledged consumers in 1960, young people of 15 to 24 years of age make up barely a third of the market of marijuana date of 2015.

However, it is the trend is completely reverse for older Canadians (45 to 64 years). 40 years ago, they were barely a drop of water in the ocean of consumers of pot canadians, while they are nearly a quarter of all cannabis smokers in 2015, according to Statistics Canada (see info box).

“The change in the composition of the cannabis market corresponds to a change by which the baby boomer cohort, exposed to cannabis in high school and the university, has retained a preference for the use of cannabis in aging “, analyse the report’s authors, Ryan Macdonald, and Michelle Rotermann.

700 tonnes consumed

The aging of the baby-boomer consumer and the arrival of new generations who saw a less negative cannabis have also led to a surge in the amount of the drug consumed per year.

In 2015, Statistics Canada estimates that Canadians have consumed 700 tons of marijuana. It is almost 30 times more than in 1960, the first year recorded by Statistics Canada in its report.

“According to a study carried out in 2012, we have found that the more a consumer of cannabis is aged, the more it will consume compared to a younger person. Therefore, a hypothesis that could explain part of this bond is that the more they have aged, more baby boomers are of pot, ” said Danny Leung.

Based on different analyses of the price of cannabis on the black market, the organization therefore believes that Canadians spent between$ 5 billion and$ 6.2 billion for this drug in 2015.

Consumer vs pot, by year and by age group

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Tons of pot consumed per year by Canadians over 15 years

24

29

232

347

324

484

697

1960

1965

1975

1985

1995

2005

2015

Value in 2015 of the market

Cannabis$ 5 billion to$6 billion, and

Wine$7 billion

Beer$9 billion

Source : Statistics Canada