EASIER TO GET POT THAN CIGARETTES: TEENS

Federal Report Shows Kids Think Marijuana Less Harmful

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 aims to 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 spokesman 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,"
concluded 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 understands
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
curiosity or that their friends had offered them some. Smoking among
this age group appears to be occasional and those who tried it said
they were unlikely to do so in the future because they do not see the
"point".

The report suggests there is still the potential to combine
"messaging" on tobacco and marijuana in terms of coping and resiliency
against using the substances: "If messaging is built around peer
pressure situations, the messages could be built around 'walking away'
from or saying 'no' to both substances.