Canadians appear to be sticking to pre-legalization methods of buying cannabis, according to a new survey.
According to the survey the stigma around the drug remains high and overall support for legalization seems to be fading.
Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph paired up on the report to find 50% of surveyed Canadians agree with the federal government's decision to legalize cannabis, down from 68.6% 2017.
Bill Bogart is a University of Windsor law professor and cannabis law expert — he spoke with Patty Handysides on The Afternoon News.
The survey showed a slight increase in occasional or first time users, but that's no surprise to Bogart.
He says the numbers revolving around chronic users and kids are the most interesting - most critics thought legalization would put numbers through the roof.
"Daily users, near daily users, those are the folks we'd have to worry about because they're using the drug a lot, has not gone up," he says. "Use amongst kids has not gone up, so those are two quite reassuring statistics."
Bogart says it's still too soon to tell, especially with a lack of availability in Ontario.
"We're kind of settling in to this, accepting that those who want to use the drug, and use it appropriately, that's all well and good. People who want to stay away from it are obviously perfectly at liberty to do so," he says.
He says legalization may not be achieving the goal it was supposed to.
"I just wanted people to stop being criminalized for simple possession and use and I wanted them to have access to a legal market so we can get at the illicit market and grind it down so people could have a safe supply," says Bogart.
The percentage of people who say they neither agree nor disagree with legalization has nearly tripled, from just under 7% to more than 20% as well.
— with files from AM800's Patty Handysides