Pubdate: Fri, 10 Oct 2014
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Sheryl Ubelacker
Referenced: CAMH releases new Cannabis Policy Framework:
http://mapinc.org/url/sCod1dXx
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Marijuana - Canada)

IT'S TIME FOR CANADA TO LEGALIZE POT, ADDICTION AGENCY SAYS

Government Regulation Better Than Criminalization: CAMH

TORONTO - Canada's largest mental health and addiction treatment and
research centre is calling for the legalization of marijuana, with
strict controls that would govern who could buy weed, from where, and
in what quantity.

In a policy statement released Thursday, the Centre for Addiction and
Mental Health in Toronto said cannabis should be sold through a
government controlled monopoly and with limited availability and an
age limit, possibly through outlets similar to provincially operated
liquor stores.

"Legalization means that we remove all penalties for cannabis
possession and use by adults," said Jurgen Rehm, director of social
and epidemiological research at CAMH.

"Canada's current system of cannabis control is failing to prevent or
reduce the harms associated with cannabis use," he said Wednesday.
"Based on a thorough review of the evidence, we believe that
legalization combined with strict regulation of cannabis is the most
effective means of reducing the harms associated with its use."

Those harms include respiratory diseases such as lung cancer, the risk
of death or disability from motor vehicle accidents, and deleterious
effects on cognition, particularly among pot-smoking adolescents
because their brains are still developing.

Cannabis use can also become habitual, said Rehm, noting that about
30,000 people are treated for pot dependence each year in Ontario
alone. Given its potential harms, legalizing and controlling the sale
of marijuana in Canada is an important public health measure, Rehm
stressed Although possessing pot is illegal, a significant proportion
of Canadians still use the herb. In fact, Canada has one of the
highest rates of cannabis use in the world, with 40 per cent of
Canadians having used it at least once in their lifetime.

In Ontario, for instance, a survey showed about the same percentage of
people aged 18 to 29 reported having smoked pot in the previous year.

"We have a lot of our adolescents smoking marijuana, so it does not do
what it's supposed to be doing," he said of criminalizing cannabis.
"We push our youth, our adolescents into an illegal market, and where
other drugs are sold from the same dealer."

"And we cannot control all of this unless we legalize the substance
. plus we can control the potency and the quality too."

Part of that control would include restricting sales to consumers over
a certain age - such as 19, 20 or 21 - similar to age rules in place
for those buying alcohol.

Ian Culbert, executive-director of the Canadian Public Health
Association, welcomed the call for legalization by CAMH.

"The war on drugs has failed and it has done more damage than any
possible good," said Culbert. "So we have to take a different approach."

"Canadian society isn't overnight going to embrace this idea of
legalization and regulation, so it's a conversation that we have to
have."

In May, the association issued its own policy statement saying that
"Canada needs a public health approach to managing illegal
psychoactive substances that de-emphasizes criminalization and stigma
in favour of evidence-based strategies to reduce harm."

Benedikt Fischer, an addictions expert at B. C.' s Simon Fraser
University, said the federal government's insistence on criminalizing
marijuana possession and use has led to "hundreds of thousands" of
Canadians over the years carrying a criminal record, which can have a
far-reaching impact on their lives, including being unable to qualify
for certain jobs.

"And we're not effectively deterring cannabis use nor are we
effectively preventing harms," said Fischer, adding that pricing of a
legalized product is also a key element of regulation - high enough to
prevent too much use, but not so high it would send people to the
black market looking for a less expensive product.

"The objective is not to make cannabis as cheaply available to as many
people as possible, but really to make sure that people who want to
consume cannabis have a safe and regulated and controlled supply that
they choose over the black market," he said.  
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MAP posted-by: Richard