POT EASY TO FIND AT SCHOOLS: STUDY

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
Canadian 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.

Prepared by Millward Brown Goldfarb, the report is based on research
from 16 focus groups held earlier this year in Toronto, Montreal,
Regina and Halifax. The groups were divided into three age categories
- -- 10-12, 13-15 and 16-19 -- in each location, with the oldest group
also being divided up between smokers and non-smokers.

Paul Dufresne, a spokesperson for Health Canada, said the department
is following the $56,000 report's recommendation to create separate
messages regarding smoking tobacco and marijuana "because teens
perceive them as two different things."

"Having separate messages would, in participants' minds, ensure that
the key messages being communicated would not be missed or ignored,"
said the report.

Dufresne said as part of the department's information campaign on
marijuana, it would soon be releasing an information booklet for
parents identifying signs that a child is smoking marijuana.

The focus group report says the 10- to 12-year-old group believes that
smoking cigarettes and marijuana is "bad for you" and understand there
are health risks associated with both substances. Participants said
they would say "no" if offered either substance or simply walk away.

In the older 13- to 15-year-old group, some said they had tried either
or both substances, giving the main reason for trying as curiousity or
that their friends had offered them some. Smoking among this age group
appears to be occasional and those that tried it said they were
unlikely to do so in the future because they do not see the "point."