STUDY: AS EDUCATION, INCOME GO UP, SO DO DRINKING AND DRUG USE

Almost 17 Per Cent In B.C. Have Smoked Pot In The Past Year

B.C.'s going to pot. And hallucinogens, cocaine, ecstasy, heroin and inhalants.

A ground-breaking study on addiction released last year showed B.C. led the
country in almost all types of illicit drug use.

Now, a detailed analysis of the data, released yesterday, reveals
surprising variations in drug and alcohol use according to income,
education and marital status.

Who's least likely to toke? Married couples, high-school dropouts and
low-income earners.

More than half of never-married Canadians have smoked marijuana (57.5 per
cent) at some point in their lives, compared to 41 per cent of married
couples and 35 per cent of previously married respondents.

Only about 35 per cent of non-high-school graduates had smoked pot,
compared to 52 per cent among Canadians with some post-secondary education.
Just 43 per cent of low-income earners had smoked cannabis, versus 55 per
cent of high income earners.

The study found drinking increases with income and education.

Canadians without high-school diplomas were more often abstainers and
former drinkers than those with high incomes. Only 64 per cent of those
with little education drank in the past year, compared to 84 per cent of
post-secondary graduates and university-degree holders.

Thirteen per cent of high-income earners and 12 per cent of university
graduates drank four or more times a week, compared to fewer than 10 per
cent of high school dropouts and six per cent of low income earners.

The original study revealed 52.1 per cent of British Columbians had tried
marijuana, compared with a national average of 44.5 per cent. Almost 17 per
cent of respondents in B.C. smoked pot in the past year, versus 14 per cent
nationally.

More than 11 per cent of Canadians have tried hallucinogens, 10 per cent
have tried cocaine, six per cent have used speed, four per cent have used
ecstasy, and fewer than than one per cent have tried heroin and inhalants
at some point in their lives.

In B.C., 16.5 per cent have tried hallucinogens, more than 16 per cent have
tried cocaine, 6.5 per cent have used ecstasy and 1.8 per cent have used
heroin or inhalants.

The study by Health Canada and the Canadian Executive Council on Addictions
surveyed 13,900 Canadians over age 15 by phone between December 2003 and
April 2004.