The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated alcohol home delivery, increasing alcohol consumption

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many states expanded online alcohol sales and alcohol home delivery laws. One of the first U.S. studies of the impact on adults of home delivery of alcohol during the early months of the pandemic found significantly more alcohol consumption and binge drinking among those who obtained their alcohol through home delivery than those who did not. These results and others will be shared at the 46th annual scientific meeting of the Research Society on Alcohol (RSA) in Bellevue, Washington.

Study finds alcohol and cannabis sales rose with pandemic

The study used information from Statistics Canada to compare 16 months of alcohol and cannabis sales before and after the pandemic began (November 2018 to February 2020 compared to March 2020 to June 2021). During the pandemic period, Canadians bought 1.86 billion dollars more alcohol than was predicted based on the pre-pandemic trend. Increases in cannabis sales were $811 million higher, nearly a billion dollars above the predicted amount.