Sales of alcohol and cannabis in Canada have been highest during the COVID-19 pandemic , according to a new study by the Peter Boris Center for Addiction Research (PBCAR) at McMaster University and St. Joseph’s Healthcare. Hamilton, and the Homewood Research Institute.
Since March 2020, monthly alcohol sales increased by an average of 5.5 percent over expected sales, while cannabis sales had a much more pronounced increase, approaching 25 percent .
Increase in narcotics
The study used data from Statistics Canada to compare 16 months of alcohol and cannabis sales before and after the pandemic started (November 2018 to February 2020 compared to March 2020 to June 2021). During the pandemic period, Canadians bought $ 1.86 billion more alcohol than was predicted based on the pre-pandemic trend. Increases in cannabis sales were $ 811 million higher, almost $ 1 billion above the expected amount .
The research also showed that in March 2020, sales of alcohol and cannabis increased by roughly 15 percent higher than expected. The increase parallels other consumer bookings of various goods, as the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic began to widely affect North America.
Subsequently, alcohol sales returned to more typical levels after storage in March 2020 , but remained high overall, while cannabis sales continued to exceed forecast levels more dramatically over the 16-month period.