POT-SMOKING YOUTH NOT DETERRED BY LAWS

More Adolescents Trying It, Report Finds

Efforts to prevent marijuana use are having little impact, and young
Canadians are smoking pot in greater numbers than ever, a Senate report says.

An estimated 30 to 50 per cent of people 15 to 24 years old have used
cannabis despite its illegality, says the report, released Thursday by the
Senate committee on illegal drugs.

"When you examine cannabis usage among youth, you realize that public
policy has absolutely no effect," said Senator Pierre Claude Nolin,
committee head.

"We think that prohibition is not an effective policy method to reach an
objective. We even don't know what is the objective."

After 14 months of studying the pros and cons of pot use, the committee
also concludes that scientific evidence suggests marijuana isn't a
so-called gateway drug that leads to the use of harder drugs.

The discussion paper, intended to guide public consultation planned for six
Canadian communities in coming weeks, indicates that millions of dollars in
public money being spent to combat pot is wasted.

The arguments in the paper are far from new -- many were made in the Le
Dain report of 1973.

Yet the federal government has been reluctant to change the law and Health
Minister Anne McLellan has backtracked from a plan to provide
government-grown marijuana to severely ill patients.

In hearings, the committee was told it's better not to use cannabis, a
mood- and perception-altering drug.

But "the same thing is true of scotch," said Alberta Senator Tommy Banks.

Using cannabis can increase the risk of lung cancer, although the report
states that "research has yet to distinguish between the effects of
cannabis and tobacco."

The most recent auditor general's report found it costs more than $500
million for federal agencies to fight illegal drugs.

Canadian Alliance MP Keith Martin, who introduced a failed private member's
bill to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, said he
agrees with the report, but the information isn't new.

He called on the government to take action on the final report, due in August.