CANADIANS HIGH ON POT

B.C. Lead Nation in Acceptance of Medicinal Use

In a nationwide survey, an overwhelming 93 per cent of Canadians say
they accept the idea of people legally smoking marijuana for health reasons.

Seventy per cent not only accept the practice but also personally
approve of the behaviour.

Support for the overall legalization of marijuana is also strong,
with almost half of Canucks giving it a thumbs-up -- the same
percentage of people who, in a 2004 Health Canada-sponsored survey,
were found to have smoked cannabis in their lifetime.

Results of the study of 2,400 adults are published in the new book
The Boomer Factor: What Canada's Most Famous Generation is Leaving
Behind, authored by Alberta's University of Lethbridge sociologist
Reginald Bibby.

The findings are noteworthy in light of a Supreme Court of Canada
ruling in favour of Calgary pot activist Grant Krieger. He was
awarded a new trial after jurors were directed by a judge to find him
guilty of possessing the drug for the purposes of trafficking.

Krieger, who uses marijuana to cope with multiple sclerosis, has said
he shares his supply of the drug with people in medical need.

"Any jury that is representative of Canadians can be expected to
accept the general principle that an individual should be able to use
marijuana for medicinal purposes," says Bibby.

In 1975, 26 per cent of Canadians supported the legalization of
marijuana; in 2005, 45 per cent supported such a change.

"Large numbers of people do not believe its legalization would be
detrimental to individuals or society, based in part on their
personal experiences with pot," he says.

"If people think it can further help people medically, then
relatively few feel there is any reason to ban it."

Ninety-four per cent of B.C.ers support medicinal pot, second only to
Quebec where the figure is 96 per cent.

Support for the general legalization of marijuana is strongest in
B.C. at 57 per cent.