Pubdate: Sun, 27 Apr 2003
Source: Canadian Online Explorer
Copyright: 2003 Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.canoe.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/536
Author: Jason Botchford, Sun Media

POT GAP WIDENS

TORONTO -- A massive pot-smoking generational gap between Canada's young 
people and their parents is widening, a new Sun-Leger poll shows.

More than a third of young adults (36%), those aged 18-24, have smoked 
marijuana in the past year compared to only 8% of their parents - those in 
the 35-54 age range - according to the new survey taken April 1-6.

The percentage of Canadian youth who smoke marijuana - 58% have tried it by 
age 24, according to the poll - has been continually rising since 1993 and 
is now among the highest in the world.

"Absolutely parents should be concerned. What if trying the drug moves on 
to regular use?" said Diane Buhler, executive with the Parent Action Group 
on Drugs.

"The experimenting begins when the kids are in high school. The kids do 
tell us marijuana is easily available and consistently used in their peer 
groups. It's all around them."

While more than a third of people 18-24 have recently smoked, only 24% of 
25-34-year-olds have puffed pot in the past year. After age 34, the rate 
drops off dramatically with only 1% of seniors older than 65 lighting up 
last year.

"I think what you're seeing is a lot of people experimenting with the drug 
at a young age and then they are done with it," Buhler said. "Be careful 
not to overreact to experimentation, but parents have to be very aware of 
use increases."

A similar poll two years ago showed the same results for the older age 
groups but only 30% of young adults aged 18-24 had smoked in the year previous.

"The response we're getting consistently is, 'It can't be so bad, it's used 
for medicine, how can you say it's as bad for you as alcohol?' " Buhler said.

Public awareness and education campaigns dealing with marijuana are almost 
non-existent.

"We don't have a Canada drug strategy and the provincial drug strategy is 
not active," she said.

The irony, Buhler said, is that if the drug laws were relaxed the federal 
and provincial governments would have to deal with the issue and spend more 
money on educating youth.

"That's what we're hoping," Buhler said. "Right now the debate around 
legalization has taken over completely from the health issues. It would be 
better if we could find a solution and end that debate."

Canada's Marijuana Party Leader Marc-Boris St.-Maurice said legalization 
would actually bring more controls to the smoking habits of young people.

"As with alcohol and cigarettes, teens will still use drugs including 
marijuana," St. Maurice said. "But by having the state decide the 
parameters within which a person can properly obtain marijuana is a much 
more effective safeguard than the current situation where a dealer is not 
concerned with the age of the buyer nor their safety."

The poll surveyed 1,501 people across Canada and sample results can be 
considered accurate to within 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens