When Canada legalised cannabis in 2018, one of the big questions was what would happen to alcohol. Would people drink less once cannabis was legal, or would they use both? A Canadian study from 2024 found that beer sales fell after legalisation, while spirits sales stayed at the same level. Other studies, however, paint a more mixed picture. Here we look at what the research shows and what has happened to alcohol sales in Canada since then.
Key facts
- Canada legalised cannabis for adults on 17 October 2018.
- A study in Drug and Alcohol Dependence (2024) found that beer sales fell by around 3 percent after legalisation.
- The decline applied to canned and kegged beer. Bottled beer and spirits were not affected.
- A national study from 2025, on the other hand, found no clear change in total alcohol sales.
- Research on cannabis as a substitute for alcohol is mixed, but more studies point to substitution than to the opposite.
How Canada legalised cannabis
Canada’s Cannabis Act came into force on 17 October 2018. That made Canada the second country in the world, after Uruguay, to legalise cannabis for adults at national level. Adults may possess up to 30 grams of dried cannabis in public and grow up to four plants per residence for personal use. A year later, on 17 October 2019, edible products and concentrates also became legal to sell.
The federal government is responsible for licences and product requirements, while the provinces and territories decide how cannabis is sold. This means that the minimum age, shops and rules differ between, for example, Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. The legal market has grown steadily. In the 2024/25 fiscal year, cannabis sales reached 5.5 billion Canadian dollars, an increase of 6.1 percent on the previous year.
What did the study show about beer sales?
The study was published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence in 2024 by the researchers Shweta Mital, Lindsay Bishop, Shawn Bugden, Paul Grootendorst and Hai Nguyen. They compared monthly sales of beer from 2012 to February 2020 and of spirits from 2016 to February 2020, in other words before and after legalisation. The method is called an interrupted time series and adjusts for seasonal patterns, so that an ordinary summer peak is not mistaken for an effect of the law.
The result was that beer sales fell immediately after legalisation, by 96 hectolitres per 100,000 people in the first month and by a further 4 hectolitres per month after that. Between September 2018 and February 2020 this amounted to a decline of around 3 percent. The drop applied to canned and kegged beer, while bottled beer was not affected. The decline was seen in all provinces except the Atlantic provinces. Spirits sales did not change.
The researchers describe the decline as modest but economically meaningful and interpret it as some people choosing cannabis instead of beer. At the same time, they point out that it is unclear what this means for public health, as the substitution may involve moderate drinking rather than heavy drinking.
Other studies paint a more mixed picture
Not all studies point in the same direction. A national study in Drug and Alcohol Review from 2025 examined alcohol sales in Canada between 2004 and 2022. It found no immediate and no gradual change in total alcohol sales after legalisation. The study also showed that beer sales were already slowly declining before cannabis became legal, while other drinks were increasing.
Another study from 2025 compared shops in Nova Scotia. Shops that sold both alcohol and cannabis saw higher alcohol sales than expected, while shops that sold only alcohol saw lower sales. Overall, alcohol sales in the province fell by 1.2 percent. This shows how hard it is to separate the effect of cannabis from other changes, such as where and how people shop.
Substitute or complement?
Whether cannabis replaces alcohol or is used alongside it has been studied for a long time. A systematic review from 2020 went through 65 studies. 30 of them supported the idea that cannabis replaces alcohol, 17 that the two are used together, 14 found no relationship and 4 found support for both. The researchers concluded that the picture is mixed and that the effect may differ between groups of people.
Alcohol sales in Canada today
According to Statistics Canada, alcohol sales fell by 3.0 percent in volume in the 2024/25 fiscal year, the largest decline since records began in 2004/05. Beer volume fell by 3.8 percent, the ninth year in a row of decline. Wine and spirits also fell. There are many possible explanations, including prices and changing habits. The statistics alone therefore cannot show how much of the decline is due to cannabis.
What it means for Europe
Canada has now had legal cannabis for several years, and the data make it one of the most studied examples in the world. The experience so far shows that the legal cannabis market has grown while alcohol sales have fallen. That does not prove that cannabis has replaced alcohol, but it gives European countries a useful basis when they consider their own rules. Germany legalised cannabis in 2024 and the Netherlands is testing regulated cultivation. You can read more in
Germany’s Cannabis Law Two Years On and Legal cannabis cultivation in the Netherlands.
The studies concern cannabis with THC. CBD products made from EU-certified industrial hemp are a different matter, and you can see a selection of our CBD flowers further down the page.
When was cannabis legalised in Canada?
The Cannabis Act came into force on 17 October 2018. Edible products and concentrates became legal to sell on 17 October 2019.
Did beer sales fall after legalisation in Canada?
A study from 2024 found that beer sales fell by around 3 percent between September 2018 and February 2020, mainly for canned and kegged beer.
Were spirits sales affected?
No. The study found no change in spirits sales after legalisation.
Does cannabis replace alcohol?
The research is mixed. More studies point to cannabis replacing alcohol than to the two being used together, but the results differ between groups and countries.
How big is the legal cannabis market in Canada?
In the 2024/25 fiscal year, cannabis sales reached 5.5 billion Canadian dollars, according to Statistics Canada.
Sources
- Mital, S., Bishop, L., Bugden, S., Grootendorst, P. and Nguyen, H. V. (2024). Association between non-medical cannabis legalization and alcohol sales: Quasi-experimental evidence from Canada. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 257.
- Armstrong, M. J. et al. (2025). Changes in population-level alcohol sales after non-medical cannabis legalisation in Canada. Drug and Alcohol Review, 44, 811–819.
- Armstrong, M. J. (2025). Alcohol sales changes in a Canadian province after recreational cannabis legalization. International Journal of Drug Policy, 142.
- Risso, C., Boniface, S., Subbaraman, M. S. and Englund, A. (2020). Does cannabis complement or substitute alcohol consumption? A systematic review of human and animal studies. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 34(9), 938–954.
- Department of Justice Canada. Cannabis Legalization and Regulation.
- Statistics Canada (2026). Control and sale of alcoholic beverages and cannabis, April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025.
