Copyright: 2005 The Vancouver Sun
Contact: sunletters@png.canwest.com
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Jack Aubry, Ottawa Citizen
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

POT EASIER TO GET THAN CIGARETTES, STUDENTS SAY

OTTAWA -- Marijuana is perceived as easier to access than cigarettes on
Canadian school grounds, a newly released government report on teenagers shows.

Commissioned by Health Canada, the report was prepared for the department's
effort in developing coping and refusal skills among teenagers. It said the
easier access to marijuana is ironically due to the legal age limit for
smoking cigarettes and the fact that you have to buy cigarettes through
traditional outlets, such as corner stores.

Based on focus groups held across the country, it also states that
marijuana is perceived among Canadian teens to be less harmful to those who
use it, compared to cigarettes, because of the effective messages that
participants have been exposed to on the health effects of cigarettes and
second-hand smoke relative to those of marijuana. "Participants generally
felt that the only exposure they had received on issues dealing with
marijuana were communications on the legalization of the substance or the
use of marijuana for medicinal purposes," said the report.

It said the teens in the focus groups had a genuine sense that those who
were marijuana smokers do not know the adverse effects of the substance
"aside from killing brain cells or making 'users' lazy" and do not
understand the health reasons why they should stop smoking it.

The report is being released as the federal government promises to move on
legislation before the House of Commons that will decriminalize marijuana,
as well as a companion bill that will stop people from driving while on drugs.

A poll released in November found Canadians are smoking marijuana more than
ever before and that almost 30 per cent of 15- to 17-year-olds and 47 per
cent of 18- and 19 -year-olds had used marijuana in the last year.