By Jessie Weisner

First time cannabis users increasing across Canada

May 3, 2019 | 2:44 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — According to a quarterly report released by Statistics Canada, an increase in adults middle-aged and up are trying cannabis, many for the first time.

Roughly 5.3 million Canadians aged 15 and older reported using pot in the last three months. The largest demographic of users are between 18 and 25, but an increasing number are aged 45 and older.

Approximately 646,000 Canadians reported trying cannabis for the first time between January and April 2019. That number compared to only 327,000 in 2018.

One Medicine Hat cannabis store says they see multiple first-time users every week.

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“We definitely see at least like one or two per day almost I’d say,” says Nicholaus Keelan-Albert, sales associate at The Green Exchange. “Generally a lot of them are going to be older folks.”

Keelan-Albert says now that cannabis has been legal for six months, people are willing to give it a try.

“Not that people are being a lot more open with that and it’s becoming a bit more socially acceptable,” he says. “It’s just becoming more of a normal thing for some people to try.”

The report also says less people are obtaining their cannabis from illegal sources. It says 38 per cent of users said they bought cannabis illegally during the first quarter of 2019, compared with 51 per cent last year.