Waterloo, Canada: Approximately ten percent of Canadian cannabis consumers report engaging in home cultivation, according to data published in the journal Addictive Behavior Reports.
Canadian researchers surveyed home cultivation patterns prior to and following the enactment of adult-use legalization in 2018. Under the law, adults in most regions of the country are permitted to grow up to four cannabis plants for their own personal use. (The provinces of Quebec and Manitoba prohibit home cultivation.)
Researchers reported that the percentage of consumers who grew their own cannabis increased from six percent prior to the passage of legalization to nine percent in 2020. Those residing in more rural areas were more likely to home cultivate. Most of those who engaged in home cultivation did not exceed legally imposed plant limits.
“Almost one-in-ten Canadian cannabis consumers reported home cultivation of cannabis in 2020, with modest increases following legalization of non-medical cannabis,” authors concluded. “The uptake of home cultivation is associated with province and cultivation policies; specifically, Manitoba and Quebec, the only provinces to prohibit non-medical home cultivation, reported among the lowest rates. Although the current study reported an increase in home cultivation among past 12-month consumers after legalization, it will be important to see whether rates continue to increase, even as access to legal cannabis and the price of legal cannabis decreases.”
Data from the United States has estimated that fewer than two percent of cannabis consumers acknowledge engaging in home cultivation, although the actual percentage of home growers has likely increased in recent years as more jurisdictions have adopted marijuana legalization policies.
NORML has long advocated that consumers in legal jurisdictions ought to have the option to home cultivate personal use quantities of cannabis, opining: “The inclusion of legislative provisions protecting the non-commercial home cultivation of cannabis serves as leverage to assure the product available at retail outlets is high quality, safe and affordable. Additionally, permitting home cultivation provides adult consumers with an immediate source of cannabis — providing an alternative to the illicit market. Such a source is necessary because it typically takes state regulators several months, or even years, following the law’s enactment to establish licensed retail operators.”
Full text of the study, “Home cultivation across Canadian provinces after cannabis legalization,” appears in Addictive Behavior Reports.