Ontario’s online store for cannabis sales may have processed 38,000 orders in the hours following the midnight legalization of the drug but a new survey suggests that the vast majority of residents still have no intention of lighting up themselves.

Nanos Research conducted a survey of 1,000 randomly selected Canadians and found that 71 per cent of them are not interested in smoking cannabis now that it is legal.

A further eight per cent of respondents said that they were somewhat not interested. The percentage of respondents who said they were interested or somewhat interested, meanwhile, was 19 per cent.

Disinterest in smoking legal cannabis was the highest in Quebec (88 per cent of respondents were either not interest or somewhat not interested) while residents in Ontario were slightly more open to the prospect (74.6 per cent were either not interest or somewhat not interested)

Interestingly, the survey found that Canadians were more amenable to consuming cannabis edibles or drinks, though those products have not yet been legalized and the Liberal government has indicated that it may be another year until legislation permitting their sale is enacted.

When it came to cannabis edibles or drinks, 60 per cent of respondents said that they were not interested and 12 per cent said that they were somewhat not interested. About 25 per cent of respondents said that they were either interested or somewhat interested.

“Governments have spent decades demonizing smoking, and even though they’ve legalized something and allowed for smoking marijuana I don’t think that means that there’s going to be a new renaissance in how people feel about smoking in general,” pollster Nik Nanos told CTV News.ca.

Two-thirds of Canadians concerned about second-hand smoke

Previous polls have suggested that Canadians are mostly in favour of the legalization of cannabis, though the Nanos survey did reveal that many are concerned about second-hand smoke.

The majority of respondents to the survey said they were either concerned (40 per cent) or somewhat concerned (23 per cent) about second-hand smoke emanating from private locations, such as homes or apartments. Only 23 per cent of respondents said that they were completely unconcerned about that while 13 per cent said that they were somewhat unconcerned.

In Ontario, where residents will be permitted to consume cannabis in public, about 62 per cent of respondents said that they were concerned or somewhat concerned about second-hand smoke.

The survey was conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 4and is considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.