Islanders paying more for pot than national average, StatsCan data suggests

Islanders are paying more than the national average for pot, according to crowdsourcing data from Statistics Canada.​

Since the national survey, titled StatsCannabis, began earlier this year, more than 17,000 anonymous responses were received.

It asked Canadians about their last dried cannabis purchase, specifically the price of the cannabis, the quantity in grams, its quality, which municipality they bought it in and why they were smoking it.

• Pot consumers paying less than $7 a gram, Statistics Canada survey finds
• 15% of Islanders likely to buy legal pot, according to poll

Of the thousands of Canadians that answered, Statistics Canada recorded 120 responses from P.E.I. and the survey says people in the province are paying about $7.05 per gram — a bit higher than the reported national average of $6.83.

In comparison, Nova Scotians reported paying a bit more than Islanders at $7.19 per gram.

Meanwhile in New Brunswick, responses show people have access to some of the least expensive cannabis in the country at $6.38 per gram — second only to Quebec at $5.88.

Here's a breakdown of what respondents said they're paying per gram (on average) in each province:

• $7.95, Newfoundland and Labrador
• $7.42, Saskatchewan
• $7.39, Ontario
• $7.24, Manitoba
• $7.21, Alberta
• $7.19, Nova Scotia
• $7.05, Prince Edward Island
• $6.93, British Columbia
• $6.38, New Brunswick
• $5.88, Quebec

More than half of responses suggest Islanders are smoking for recreational purposes

For P.E.I., more than half of those who took the survey said they're smoking for recreational purposes, while the rest said they're smoking for medicinal reasons.

Not every respondent answered the question about how often they smoke.

Of those who did, however, nearly two-thirds said they're daily smokers while the remaining third reported smoking either a few times per week or a few times per month.

• More Canadians overall smoking pot than in 1985, says StatsCan
• StatsCan uses crowdsourcing to collect data on pot prices

Conrad Barber-Dueck, an economist with Statistics Canada, said the results of the survey so far are "quite good" in that the prices reported are on par with market averages.

"It seems that the prices that we have seen from the crowdsourcing hub very much follow economic principles," he said.

"So we would see that areas that are more remote, like the territories, have higher prices. We see that the more people buy, the lower the price."

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