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Background: Cannabis legalization policy is increasingly implemented to improve public health and safety outcomes, including in Canada (since 2018). Main outcome assessments have primarily focused on categorical (e.g. pre-/post-) legalization policy reform effects, while differential regulation frameworks have been less considered. For this, Canada provides a rich ecology where provinces diversely define many regulation parameters under the federal legalization umbrella, with Alberta and Quebec as the respectively least and most tightly regulated provincial units.Methods: Based on a basic, targeted search, we identified and summarized key publicly available, cross-sectional indicator data for primary health and socio-legal post-legalization outcomes for Alberta and Quebec.Results: Data suggested substantial inter-provincial differences in cannabis use (e.g. among adults and youth) and legal cannabis sourcing levels, with less differences for select cannabis use-related risks/harm (e.g. cannabis-impaired driving, cannabis-related motor-vehicle-crashes). Other specific outcomes (e.g. poisonings, home-cultivation) showed inter-provincial differences that may plausibly relate to distinct provincial regulation frameworks.Discussion: While possible ecological or independent effects may exist, the exploratory data suggest that the different regulatory legalization frameworks in Alberta and Quebec may influence legalization-related health and/or socio-legal outcomes. Related outcome differentials should be systematically examined for causal associations with regulations implemented towards informing evidence-based cannabis legalization policy development.
Robinson et al. (Fri,) studied this question.