Since the little green plant was officially legalized nationwide in Canada on October 17, 2018, citizens from Alberta to Saskatchewan and from Newfoundland to the Northwest Territories celebrated the approval of their beloved marijuana. Needless to say, ever since this historic day, our neighbor to the north has certainly experienced its fair share of bizarre events, including problems with pot imports to issues involving the First Nations’ traditional laws for the herb. Given the fact that laws vary by province, you can expect that certain regulations that apply in (let’s say) Ontario will definitely not apply in Quebec. Still, one question remains: which part of Canada uses the most marijuana? According to sources, the urban region that uses the most of this drug is Halifax, Nova Scotia. Let’s take a closer look at this discovery and find out more.
Wastewater Studies Reveal Pot Content
So how did researchers determine that Halifax is literally the “pot capital” of Canada?
Recently, Statistics Canada began work on a pilot study that utilizes wastewater-based epidemiology, an innovative form of technology that European groups have used to track drug consumption since 2007. Officially, this incident marks the first time Canada has used this unique program.
Overall, researchers examined samples from five urban areas (Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, and Vancouver) to determine if THC-COOH (a marijuana metabolite) was present in the cities’ wastewater. After the experiment, the research team discovered that, between March and August 2018, Halifax (Nova Scotia) contained the most widespread use of pot (approximately 1,310 micrograms per person per week). Meanwhile, additional city levels include 976 (Montreal, Quebec), 451 (Toronto, Ontario), 416 (Edmonton, Alberta), 288 (Vancouver, British Columbia).
Preliminary and Experimental Method
According to Statistics Canada, these results were simply a part of a preliminary, experimental program and may not ultimately reveal a set pattern in rates of consumption. Ultimately, additions studies will allow researchers to determine if these regions do, in fact, consume the most amount of marijuana in the entire country of Canada. So why was this program started to begin with?
Additional reports indicate this study was kickstarted out of response to a social stigma that the assumption that Canada consumes a significantly high amount of pot.
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