Seven years after it was decriminalized, cannabis is no longer a social flashpoint — it is a fact of Canadian life.
“Today, there’s still a little resistance [to cannabis], but it really isn’t very controversial, and in fact, it doesn’t really divide people by politics,” said Abacus Data pollster David Coletto at an Oct. 30 industry conference in Ottawa.
New Abacus findings, released the day before, show one in three adults have used cannabis in the past six months. Among Canadians under 45, that figure rises to one in two. Nearly six in ten respondents said they regard the legal cannabis sector an “important contributor” to Canada’s economy.
Coletto told the audience of high-level politicians and businesspeople that such figures suggest Ottawa has the social licence to prioritize cannabis in its industrial policy.
“[Cannabis] creates … a unique opportunity for this government who’s looking for an economic story … to say, ‘Well, if we’re going to lose … 5,000, 6,000 jobs in the automotive sector in southern Ontario, where are those people going to work?”
Rapid normalization
When cannabis was legalized in 2018, many Canadians had concerns it could lead to impaired driving, youth access and social disorder.
Many Canadians who expected disastrous outcomes now recognize “the sky didn’t fall,” Coletto said at the event, which was hosted by The Pearson Centre think tank.
“ We did not see reefer madness,” he added. “It was more reefer mildness.”
Abacus’ survey shows strong bi-partisan support for cannabis. Nearly 70 per cent of recent Liberal voters and 60 per cent of Conservative voters said they see cannabis as an important contributor to the economy.
Coletto warned, however, that knowledge gaps remain.
“We learned in the research [that] a lot of people don’t know much about your industry,” he said.
“They don’t understand the opportunities; they don’t even understand the range of products that you actually can produce.
“They still sometimes think of cannabis joints, and that’s where they stop. They don’t understand there are beverages and edibles and even ointments.”
That gap represents both a challenge — and an opportunity — for industry and government alike, he said.
The Abacus survey found nearly 60 per cent of Canadians want Ottawa to take regulatory measures to expand the industry.
The policy opening
Coletto was not the only speaker to discuss the potential of a pro-growth policy framework.
Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith said Ottawa needs to be more proactive in ensuring the various provincial cannabis frameworks align with a common national vision:
“ The federal government should be convening and pulling people together — not being pulled, kicking and screaming — to do a cannabis review, and saying … ‘These are best practices, these are municipalities that are doing it well. These are provinces that are doing well.’”
NDP MP and interim party leader Don Davies, who was a participant in the same panel discussion, called out what he sees as the “overly onerous” regulatory costs borne by cannabis operators.
Both Erskine-Smith and Davies said policymakers’ goal should be to tilt the playing field toward the legal market and away from illicit supply.
In her keynote speech, Secretary of State for Combatting Crime Ruby Sahota made clear the black market remains a significant challenge. In 2025 alone, the Canada Border Services Agency seized 39,000 kg of illegal cannabis products, she said.
Sahota stressed the need for multi-jurisdictional cooperation to counter criminals’ increasingly sophisticated distribution methods.
Online illicit stores — some of which masquerade as legal retailers — remain a “whack-a-mole” enforcement challenge, she said, with new criminal elements emerging to replace those that are shut down.
Health effects sidelined
The industry event — which was convened “to discuss and debate the most pressing issues facing the Canadian cannabis industry,” according to event materials — did not focus on the health risks associated with cannabis use.
But research increasingly indicates there are risks.
A series of studies published in Canada and the U.S. between 2023 and 2025 have linked frequent or disordered cannabis use to higher risks of heart attacks, schizophrenia, dementia and premature death.
This summer, Canadian Affairs reported that soaring THC levels in cannabis products were sending users to emergency rooms.
Yet, Health Canada’s 2024 Canadian Cannabis Survey found many users are unaware of cannabis’ physical and mental health risks. Half of respondents said they had not seen any public education campaigns or health warnings about cannabis.
The event did not include any panels focused on identifying measures to respond to these trends.
In his remarks, Erskine-Smith cautioned against a regulatory approach that overestimates the harms of the substance.
“ We shouldn’t treat this like plutonium,” he said.
