Pubdate: Thu, 08 Dec 2016
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2016 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Mike Hager

PANEL SAYS OTTAWA MUST MONITOR HOW LEGAL POT COULD HURT OR HELP

Federal report expected to recommend a regime to measure impact of
legalization

A federal panel reporting to Ottawa on the next steps toward
legalizing marijuana is expected to call for a comprehensive regime to
monitor the impacts of bringing the substance out of the shadows and
into the mainstream. And that could make Canada the world's first
national case study on the dangers - and potential benefits - of
cannabis when the drug becomes legal, some of the country's leading
drug researchers say.

Researchers must study the dangers, such as impaired driving and more
young people using it, says Dan Werb, director of the Toronto-based
International Centre for Science in Drug Policy. But, he adds, they
must also be open to looking for pot's potential public-health
benefits, such as people substituting cannabis for alcohol or opioids.

"The one mistake government could make is focusing strictly on
cannabis-related outcomes," Dr. Werb said. "Cannabis, by almost every
measure, is a safer drug than alcohol, than cocaine, than heroin, than
amphetamines and tobacco."

"The question for me isn't really about how many people use cannabis
after we regulate it. The question is: How many people use [other
drugs such as] alcohol?" he said in an interview in Vancouver.

"So, if we see increases in cannabis use, but we see a comparable
reduction in alcohol use, to me, that is a massive public-health
success. If we're only focused obsessively on cannabis, we're going to
miss the broader picture here."

On Wednesday, Toronto's Centre for Mental Health and Addiction
released data from its latest annual survey of Ontario that showed
more than 14 per cent of adults used cannabis last year - that's up
from 9 per cent reported in 1996. Of note, the organization said more
people over the age of 50 in that province acknowledged using the
substance last year (23 per cent) compared with a decade ago when only
6 per cent of respondents said they consumed marijuana.

Cannabis was deemed less dangerous than tobacco in a 2010 study that
ranked 20 legal and illegal drugs based on the dependence, social and
physical harms they caused. The report, published in the British
medical journal The Lancet, ranked tobacco as more harmful than
cannabis, while both were considered far less dangerous to users and
the general public than heroin, cocaine and alcohol.

Uruguay is the only other country to have legalized the recreational
sale and use of marijuana, but sales have been very slow to roll out
and the tiny South American country has a population about a 10th the
size of Canada.

Gathering baseline data on how Canadians are using medical and illegal
cannabis right now also is seen as something the task force has
identified as a priority.

Rebecca Jesseman, senior policy adviser at the government-funded
Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse, has studied how Washington and
Colorado rolled out recreational pot sales and said officials in both
American states expressed regret that good data were not extensively
collected before legalization.

"The task force and Health Canada very clearly recognize the need to
be as pro-active as possible in getting that research under way," said
Ms. Jesseman, whose organization was criticized in a Health Canada
review earlier this year for its reticence to embrace the
harm-reduction approach to illicit substances.

Ottawa should continue to conduct larger countrywide surveys of
alcohol, tobacco and drug use to gather information about cannabis,
she said, while stakeholder groups should be funded to carry out more
targeted studies on issues such as emergency-room visits linked to the
drug as well as its impacts on respiratory and mental-health disorders.

M.J. Milloy, an infectious-disease epidemiologist who is studying the
therapeutic effects of marijuana at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in
HIV/AIDS, said he is about to start recruiting 1,000 clients of
illegal Vancouver dispensaries for a study into how and why they use
cannabis for medical and recreational purposes. He has funding for the
initial round of interviews, but hopes to secure resources to once
again ask these people about their habits after cannabis is legalized.

He said his study should shed light on how everyday Canadians are
using the substance and will stand in contrast to previous studies,
many of which were conducted in hospitals or jails involving "people
who have been pathologized."

"By recruiting from dispensaries, we are trying to get a clearer,
less-biased picture of the role cannabis plays in the health and
wellness of Canadians," Dr. Milloy said.

Dr. Milloy and Dr. Werb, who both squared off against former prime
minister Stephen Harper during the past election campaign over his
claims about the harms of cannabis use, differ on which organization
should oversee this effort to study legalization. Dr. Milloy said a
research body affiliated with a university has the ability to
depoliticize the data, while Dr. Werb said provincial organizations
such as the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network might be best poised
to analyze and disseminate information quickly and effectively.
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MAP posted-by: Matt