POT PREFERRED TO BOOZE

Survey Says Teens More Likely To Smoke Marijuana

More 15-year-olds have tried marijuana than have experimented with a
night of drinking, a national survey of Canadian teens shows.

Half of the boys and 40 per cent of girls in Grade 10 said they've
smoked pot, according to the 2002 survey released Tuesday and carried
out by Queen's University in partnership with Health Canada. This
represents a doubling of the rate since 1990 for boys, and a 16-point
increase for girls, up from 24 per cent.

It is also a reversal of the pattern in 1990, when the experience of
getting "really drunk" surpassed experimenting with marijuana.

Among 15-year old boys in 2002, 46 per cent reported being "really
drunk" at least twice in their lifetime, down from 48 in 1990.

Girls in Grade 10 dropped three points in this period, from 45 to 42
per cent, according to the sweeping survey about the health of young
teens completed every four years since 1990.

George Smith, 18, is part of this culture shift. The first-year
student at the University of Guelph, in Ontario, first tried marijuana
in Grade 9, and became a regular pot smoker the following year. Today,
he still prefers smoking up to getting drunk, although he smokes up
less frequently now.

"I prefer the result of smoking so much more," said
Smith.

Although pot smoking is on the rise, cigarette smoking has dropped
off, especially among girls. The survey found the percentage of Grade
10 girls who smoked daily decreased to 11 per cent in 2002, from 21
per cent in 1994.

The drop among their male counterparts was negligible, from 16 to 15
per cent.

The 2002 survey also shows the percentage of young teens having sex
jumped among girls from 17 per cent in Grade 9 to 25 per cent in Grade
10, and 19 to 27 per cent among the boys. At the same time, fewer of
the older students reported using condoms.

Among the boys, condom use dropped from 73 per cent in Grade 9 to 69
per cent in Grade 10. Sixty-eight per cent of the Grade 9 girls said
their partners wore condoms, compared with 67 per cent of Grade 10
girls.

"It is worrisome that they seem to be using condoms less often as they
get older," said William Boyce, director of Queen's Social Program
Evaluation Group and editor of the report.