Observational studyDrug and alcohol review2025
Changes in population-level alcohol sales after non-medical cannabis legalisation in Canada.
Observational study in Drug and alcohol review, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Changes in population-level alcohol sales after non-medical cannabis legalisation in Canada.Drug and alcohol review · 2025Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThere is considerable interest in whether individuals substitute cannabis for alcohol and in legalisation's potential to reduce or increase alcohol-attributable harms. This study aimed to determine whether non-medical cannabis legalisation in Canada was associated with initial changes in population-level alcohol consumption.
methodsThis observational population-based study described changes in alcohol sales in Canada between 2004 and 2022. We calculated annual changes in the per capita volume of pure ethanol sold in Canada. We used an interrupted time series approach to examine immediate and gradual changes in per capita price-adjusted alcohol retailer sales value (CAD$) and beer producer sales volume (litres of product) after legalisation.
resultsDuring 2004-2022, Canadians aged 15+ spent on average CAD $751 per year on alcoholic beverages containing 8.18 L of ethanol. Annual ethanol sales volumes decreased by 0.06 (95% confidence interval [CI] -0.08 to -0.04; p = 0.001) litres per capita annually for beer but increased by 0.05 (95% CI 0.04 to 0.07; p = 0.001) litres per capita annually for other beverages, leaving no significant trend for ethanol sales overall. Following non-medical legalisation in October 2018, there were no immediate (-0.1%, 95% CI -1.3 to 1.1; p = 0.82) or gradual changes (-0.1% monthly, 95% CI -0.3 to 0.0; p = 0.12) in alcohol retailer sales. DISCUSSION AND
conclusionCanada's non-medical cannabis legalisation was not associated with significant changes in population-level alcohol sales. These findings do not support the idea that cannabis legalisation may result in declining alcohol use and harms through the substitution of cannabis for alcohol.
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Registered trials
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