@article{ref1,
title="Availability, retail price and potency of legal and illegal cannabis in Canada after recreational cannabis legalisation",
journal="Drug and alcohol review",
year="2020",
author="Mahamad, Syed and Wadsworth, Elle and Rynard, Vicki and Goodman, Samantha and Hammond, David",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: There is little objective market data on the price or potency of legal and illegal cannabis products following recreational cannabis legalisation. DESIGN AND METHODS: In the 2 months post-legalisation in Canada (November-December 2018), legal and illegal cannabis retailers were identified from government lists and online directories. The store location, price and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol levels of dried herb and cannabis cookies were collected from retailer websites or Weedmaps. <br><br>RESULTS: We identified 185 legal retailers (22 online stores, 163 storefronts; 65 government-run stores, 120 private stores) and 944 illegal retailers (791 delivery-only services, 157 storefronts). Relative to legal dried herb, illegal dried herb was lower in price (1 g: $10.23 vs. $11.08, ⅛ oz: $9.37/g vs. $10.88/g, ½ oz: $8.18/g vs. $8.85/g; P < 0.05 for all) and higher in potency (THC: 20.5% vs. 16.1%, cannabidiol: 2.4% vs. 1.7%; P < 0.05 for both). Legal private stores had higher prices for dried herb than government-run stores (1 g: $13.08 vs. $10.89, ⅛ oz: $12.75/g vs. $10.45/g, ½ oz: $10.85/g vs. $8.71/g, 1 oz: $8.54/g vs. $7.22/g; P < 0.05 for all). On average, one cannabis cookie in the illegal market contained 96 mg of THC and cost $1.57 per 10 mg of THC. <br><br>DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: In the 2 months post-legalisation, illegal cannabis was less expensive, with higher labelled THC content than legal cannabis, although the scope of these differences was more modest than estimates from other crowdsourced and self-reported data. Direct monitoring of cannabis price and potency from legal and illegal retailers is needed to examine the impact of legalisation over time.<br><br>© 2020 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0959-5236",
doi="10.1111/dar.13069",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/dar.13069"
}