August 19, 2025 – About seven years after Canada legalized recreational cannabis, public acceptance and usage levels remain steady compared to our last sounding on the subject in 2023.
Canadians continue to accept legalization (65%), with 41% expressing outright approval, 24% ambivalent, and only 29% disapproving. These levels remained steady from 2020 to 2023, with a minor drop in acceptance in 2025.
- Public acceptance is calculated by combining approval and ambivalence, as the ambivalent cohort effectively provides tacit approval, tends to exhibit more positive perceptions of cannabis and legalization, and tends to express approval when forced to choose.
Over a quarter (27%) of Canadians report using cannabis in the past 12 months – the same level as seen in 2023, up 9 points since 2019 (post-legalization), and double (+14) reported pre-legalization levels.
Dry bud/flower remains the most frequently used format amongst past 12-month users, followed by edibles. When considering all formats used in the past 12 months – regardless of frequency – edibles are now slightly ahead of dry bud.
Eight-in-ten (84%) past 12-month users report buying legal, with two-thirds (66%) saying they only buy legal – an 18-point increase in reported legal buying since 2020. One-in-ten (13%) continue to report buying illegal. Although cannabis consumers may under-report illegal purchases, the degree of under-reporting is likely consistent over time. Thus, the trendline here is moving in an encouraging direction.
Past 12-month users are still more likely to view legal prices as higher (34%) rather than the same (20%) or lower (9%) than illegal prices – but perceptions of higher prices are significantly lower than 2019-2021 and over a third are currently unsure.
For more details, see our report and associated data tables.
