MANY YOUNG ADULTS USING POT BEFORE TOBACCO: STUDY

Some young people start off by smoking marijuana before they try
cigarettes, says Dr. Scott Leatherdale, researcher at Cancer Care
Ontario, University of Waterloo and University of Toronto.

That's quite the opposite of how things used to be years ago.

"We do have some evidence that shows there is a population of kids
who use marijuana before tobacco," said Leatherdale, who was in
Niagara Falls speaking at the Ontario Tobacco Control conference held
at the Sheraton on the Falls.

There are other kids who will try marijuana and tobacco at about the same time.

More than 550 tobacco control health professionals, members of health
organizations and other interested individuals are attending the
three-day conference that began Monday.

According to a 2004 Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey, there has
been a steady increase in marijuana use over the past decade.

In 1994, 28 per cent of Canadian young adults 18 years and older
reported using marijuana at least once in their life. Today, that
number has increased to 45 per cent. Fourteen per cent reported using
marijuana this past year, indicating a seven per cent increase since 1994.

"We're doing more and more research with young adults in the area of
tobacco control. The more we talk to them about tobacco use, the more
we hear about marijuana use, so we decided to look at that," said Leatherdale.

Despite the obvious problem of increased usage, he added, there is
the issue of using tobacco in joints or pipe smoking to assist in
burning or enhancing the effect of the marijuana.

Leatherdale said there is a misconception that marijuana use is
healthier than tobacco and that may not be the case. There is limited
data available to actually make that determination.

"It's likely that it will have the same negative health effects
because it is a combustible product that is inhaled," said Leatherdale.

In 2004, approximately 1.9 million Canadians between the ages of 15
and 24 reported trying marijuana and 1.1 million reported using in
the last year.

While 590,000 reported using pot three or less times per month,
430,000 of all young adults reported using marijuana weekly or daily.

Leatherdale said another big problem is young adults from rural
communities experiment more with substances like this and have a
higher frequency of use than young adults from urban communities.

In addition, studies also indicate a substantial number of former
smokers reported using marijuana, which may cause a relapse to
tobacco addiction.