HIGH EVERYBODY!

Canuck Toking Numbers Double

CANADIANS ARE on a high. Over the past 13 years, the number of Canucks
aged 15 or older who admit to using marijuana or hashish has nearly
doubled, according to a report released yesterday by Statistics Canada.

In 2002, an estimated 12.2% of Canadians admitted to smoking marijuana
at least once in the previous year-- up from 6.5% in 1989. That means
an estimated 3 million Canadians over the age of 15 would have used
pot or hash at least once in 2001.

Nearly half said they used the drugs less than once a month, while
about 10% used weekly and another 10% used daily.

Teenagers had the highest rates of use, with the peak coming in the
late teens. Nearly four in 10 teens aged 18-19 said they toked in the
past year, while three in 10 teens aged 15-17 admitted to doing so.

At Ottawa's Operation Go Home, Tom Sidney was not surprised.

"For youth, it's their norm," he said. "Marijuana is like having a
beer and smoking a cigarette. It's become more common. The harder
drugs are becoming what marijuana used to be."

'RIDICULOUSLY EASY'

Operation Go Home sees 30 to 40 teens a day and had 7,000 contacts
with at-risk youth last year.

"I would say 95% (use marijuana) and the other 5% are lying that
they're not," Sidney said of the teens the centre sees.

At the Alwood Treatment Centre for Youth, near Carleton Place,
assistant director Kevin Crawford attributes the increased use to the
widespread availability.

"It's much more difficult for teens to get alcohol than it is drugs,"
he said.

Craig, 18, said pot is "ridiculously easy to get."

"Almost everyone has a friend of a friend who knows how to get you
some," said the Nepean resident.

Crawford said there's also a belief among many tokers that marijuana
is harmless and that it is not addictive -- both of which are false.

"(What) youth don't (realize) is that it's a real gateway drug. An
overwhelming majority of our clients addicted to other chemicals list
cannabis as one of the drugs they use first."

Some don't even consider marijuana to be a drug. Two 17-year-old guys who've
smoked marijuana on several occasions told the Sun: "It's not really a
drug."

Jill Courtemanche of the Ontario Regional Poison Control Centre at
CHEO said that could be because marijuana is now being touted as medicine.

"Potentially, that's done something to take a little bit of the fear
associated with a street drug away from it," she said.

LESS OF A STIGMA

She's also uncertain if the level of use has increased or if there's
simply less of a stigma attached to toking, particularly in light of
government plans to decriminalize.

"As far as we're feeling here, our numbers really haven't
appreciatively increased," Courtemanche said.

While the StatsCan study indicates marijuana use drops off after age
24, use in people aged 25-44 is still substantial.

All told, the survey indicates more than 10 million Canadians have
tried it at least once in their lifetime -- and use was more prevalent
in men.

The study found use in Quebec and B.C. "significantly exceeded" the
national average, while Newfoundland, P.E.I., Ontario, Manitoba and
Saskatchewan had lower-than-average use.

While the issue of decriminalizing cannabis has been much in the media
spotlight, the latest national figures don't reflect those
discussions: This survey was done in 2002, the year before an Ontario
court judge made a precedent-setting ruling that possessing a small
amount of pot was not illegal, and before Jean Chretien tried to ram
through a decriminalization bill before stepping down as prime minister.