ONE IN 4 DRINK TOO MUCH

And Pot Use Nearly Doubled In Decade

Nearly one in four Canadians who drink is exceeding guidelines for
"low-risk" drinking, and 17 per cent are engaging in such hazardous
drinking they risk developing an alcohol problem.

While Canada is mainly a nation of moderate drinkers, nearly one in
four current or former drinkers confess their drinking has caused harm
to themselves and others sometime in their lives, according to
Canada's most extensive addiction survey ever.

The Canadian Addiction Survey also reveals the proportion of Canadians
who used pot in the past year has nearly doubled in the past decade,
to 14 per cent in 2004 from 7.4 per cent in 1994.

Among drinkers surveyed, more than six per cent reported heavy
drinking (five or more drinks on a single occasion for men, and four
or more for women) at least once a week in the previous 12 months.
Nearly 26 per cent reported this pattern at least once a month.

Nearly nine per cent of women, 25 per cent of men and more than 30 per
cent of youth under 25 were identified as high-risk drinkers - for
example, drinking six or more drinks at a time and not being able to
stop.

As for marijuana, the survey showed highest use is among older teens:
Almost 30 per cent of 15- to 17-year olds, and just over 47 per cent
of 18- to 19-year-olds used cannabis in the past year.

Pot use among those 45 and older is less than 10 per
cent.

The survey also found nearly seven per cent of Canadians - 269,000
people - reported injecting themselves with a drug in the past year,
compared with 132,000 a decade earlier.

Another new poll, for the advocacy group NORML Canada, showed for the
first time that most Canadians effectively support legalization of
pot, with 57 per cent saying people should be "left alone" if caught
with small amounts of marijuana for personal use. In Quebec, 68 per
cent support a "hands-off" approach.

"This is really a rude awakening for the government," said Jody
Pressman, executive director of NORML Canada. "Government is going in
the wrong direction if it thinks decriminalization is a step forward."

Only eight per cent support criminalizing pot if it leads to jail
time. Another 32 per cent believe marijuana possession should be
punished by fines rather than criminal records, as is currently
proposed in a bill winding its way through Parliament.

The telephone survey of 1,000 adults, conducted by SES Research of
Ottawa from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1, is considered accurate within 3.1 per
cent, 19 times in 20.