Canadian Support For Marijuana Legalization Is Increasing, New Poll Shows

It’s been eight years since Canada legalized marijuana nationwide, and a new poll shows that support for the reform is increasing over time. Relatively few Canadians want to legalize other drugs, however.

Roughly two-thirds of Canadian adults (65 percent) now say they agree with cannabis being legal, according to the survey from Research Co. That’s up three percentage points since the firm last polled on the topic in 2024.

Just 29 percent of respondents disagree with marijuana legalization, and 6 percent say they’re not sure how they feel about the reform.

The survey, which was conducted from December 7-9, 2025, and involved online interviews with a representative sample of 1,002 adults in Canada, shows that there is majority support for cannabis being legal in each geographic and racial demographic breakdown reported by the pollster.

Thirty-six percent of respondents say they consumed marijuana prior to it becoming legal, 15 percent used it only after legalization and 49 percent say they have never tried it.

Among those who have used cannabis since it was legalized in October 2018, 48 percent say all of it was acquired at a licensed retailer, 17 percent say most it was from a legal shop, 13 percent got some of it from a licensed store and 16 percent got all of their cannabis outside the legal retail system.

Despite growing majority support for legal marijuana, only a minority of Canadians support legalizing other drugs such as MDMA (14 percent), powder cocaine (12 percent), crack cocaine (10 percent), meth (10 percent), heroin (9 percent) and fentanyl (9 percent), the poll shows.

When asked whether companies should be able to drug test employees for marijuana, 34 percent said they definitely should, 30 percent said they probably should, 14 percent said probably not and 13 percent said definitely not.

“There is no political divide when Canadians are asked about drug tests for employees,” Mario Canseco, President of Research Co., said in a press release. “Majorities of respondents who voted for the Conservatives (69%), the Liberals (68%) or the New Democrats (58%) in 2025 think the measure is justified now that marijuana is legal.”

The poll has a 3.1 percentage point margin of error.

A survey released last year also showed that a majority of Canadians feel the marijuana sector that’s emerged since cannabis was legalized nationwide is an “important contributor” to the country’s economy.

Canadians seem to recognize the value of the cannabis industry to the country’s overall financial health, with 59 percent describing the sector as a valuable component of the economy. That includes 69 percent of recent Liberal voters and 58 percent of recent Conservative voters.

When the research firm and Organigram last asked Canadians that question last April, 57 percent agreed about the importance of the marijuana market relative to the national economy, so this represents a slight increase.

Observers have also been watching how broader adult-use legalization impacts medical marijuana in Canada, noting, for example, patient enrollment rates declining after legalization was enacted but before retailers opened for business.

A study released last year, meanwhile, found similar marijuana use rates and support for legalization in both the U.S. and Canada despite the countries’ different national approaches to regulating the drug.

Another report last year found that marijuana legalization was “associated with a decline in beer sales,” suggesting a substitution effect where consumers shift from one product to the other.

Meanwhile, a separate survey out of Canada that was financially supported by the government recently found that youth marijuana use rates have declined after the country legalized cannabis—contradicting concerns voiced by prohibitionists.

A separate Canadian government report found that daily or near-daily use rates by both adults and youth have held steady over the last six years after the country enacted legalization.