TEENS AND MARIJUANA -- SHOCKING FODDER FOR NEWS MEDIA

Canadian Government's Mixed Message On Pot May Confuse Youth

There is a category of news story that might be called Kids Today! and it
has been around as long as there has been movable type. Adults have been
easily shocked and more than a little titillated by what teenagers are
doing, and the shock finds its way onto page 1.

Recently it was a headline -- "Marijuana easier to get at school than
cigarettes, teens say." In 1440, when Gutenberg was making the modern
newspaper possible, it might have been "Teens wear short hair, doublets and
flock to hot new dance sensation, the ballet."

And so it has gone, through the flapper era and Blackboard Jungle and, more
recently, more than you needed to read about things happening in the dark,
or sometimes even the light.

Shock is the coinage of the news media, and even if we are not shocked
ourselves, we will print something not all that shocking if we think anyone
will be shocked by it.

Hence, teens and marijuana.

A study commissioned by Health Canada says teens have easier access to
marijuana than cigarettes, not necessarily because marijuana is all that
accessible, but because traditional cigarettes all of a sudden are not.

There are age limits in stores these days, whereas there is no age limit on
the purchase of marijuana, since selling it is illegal.

It all makes a peculiar kind of sense. And if the logic were to be
followed, someone is sure to argue that marijuana should be legalized in
order to make it less accessible to teenagers.

You can picture some Liberal standing up in the House of Commons and
saying: "We'll put it into corner stores and teens won't be old enough to
buy it there."

If that sounds illogical to you, consider the fact that the study in
question is designed to help the government find and recommend coping and
refusal skills for teenagers.

Refusal skills -- that's government-speak for being able to say no.

This adds a peculiar Canadian irony to the situation: the same government
that is going to decriminalize the stuff is looking for ways to help kids
say no to it.

Shocking.

The Health Canada study goes on to give the unshocking news that more
marijuana is being smoked in this country, the numbers showing that 30 per
cent of 15- to 17-year-olds had used it in the last year, and 47 per cent
of 18- and 19-year-olds.

Not so shocking.

Tobacco products have been taking quite a beating in the media and in
society. Kids in school learn that smoking is bad for them. It even says so
on the package.

Meanwhile, out in the real world, smokers are being forced to step outside.
In restaurants, bars, shopping centres and office buildings, smokers are
not welcome. No wonder the message is getting across to teens. You hardly
need a refusal skill to say no.

The publicity around marijuana smoking, on the other hand, has been
relatively positive. It concentrates on the injustice done to users when
they are imprisoned or given criminal records. Marijuana smoking even gets
a kind of back-handed endorsement from the government, with each mention of
its plans to decriminalize.

Those too young to be affected by what is in the media have the most
uncomplicated reaction. Smoking anything is bad for you, according to the
10- to-12-year-olds focus-grouped for the study. Smoking is shocking, in
other words.

When they get a bit older, they begin to get more complicated messages,
about what is cool and what is not, about what their friends are doing and
what the law allows.

Then they are less easily shocked and more in need of refusal skills.

In looking for ways to shock them again, to help them to say no, Health
Canada could concentrate on a bill that is a companion to the one
decriminalizing marijuana. That's the one that will attempt to stop driving
while under the influence of drugs. That kind of smoking is not good for
you, either.

In getting that negative message out, in order to help teenagers with their
refusal skills, the government may have to fight its way past news media
dominated by boomers who grew up in the days when marijuana was indeed
cool, and who are reluctant to appear uncool by stressing the
less-than-wonderful aspects of marijuana use.

Marijuana messes with your head? Makes you a bad driver, a shaky
decision-maker?

Shocking.