MORE ONTARIANS USING MARIJUANA

TORONTO - More adults in Ontario are smoking marijuana than a decade
ago, and the average age of users is increasing, says a senior
scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

The centre's annual survey of adult substance use said the number of
adults in Ontario who reported cannabis use over a one-year period
rose from eight per cent in 1977 to 14 per cent in 2005.

More telling, Jurgen Rehm said, was that the age of the cannabis user
went from 26 years in 1977 to an average of 31 years. "For a long
time, marijuana smoking was confined to a transitional phenomenon, but
it now finds its way into an adult lifestyle."

A 2004 study by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse said the
percentage of Canadians over age 15 who reported cannabis use at least
once was highest in B.C. (16.8 per cent) and lowest in P.E.I. (10.7).