MARIJUANA USE ALMOST DOUBLES, SURVEY FINDS

As Grits Plan To Decriminalize Pot, Study Shows Possession Charges
Also Increasing

Melissa made a stupid mistake. One afternoon last fall she and two
friends lit up a joint outside her suburban Toronto high school. There
wasn't much she could say to the police officer who pulled up in a
cruiser beside her while she was taking a drag on a marijuana cigarette.

"I was holding all of it on me, so I took the blame for my friends.
It's better that one person gets [in trouble] than everyone," the
17-year-old said yesterday.

Melissa avoided criminal charges by agreeing to be confined to her
home for three months -- other than the time spent in school where she
is an A student. And every week she had to report to the police
station to have a female officer observe her as she produced a urine
sample for drug testing.

Once the program ended, however, so did her abstention from cannabis.

Today, like "80 per cent" of her friends, she continues to smoke a
joint a couple times a week though she admits the experience left her
"pretty paranoid." Which is why she insisted her real name not be used
in this article.

Prime Minister Paul Martin said yesterday he plans to reintroduce
legislation this fall that would decriminalize the possession of small
quantities of marijuana -- 15 grams or less. A bill to that effect
died when the election was called this spring.

That news came as Statistics Canada released a survey showing that,
between 1989 and 2002, the percentage of Canadians 15 and over who
admitted using cannabis in the previous year almost doubled -- from
6.5 per cent to 12.2 per cent.

The would mean three million people in this country smoked dope in
2002.

And the figures for last year, due to be released next week, are
expected to show marijuana use rising even further because, for many
months of 2003, police across the country were not laying charges as
the constitutionality of pot laws was being decided.

The survey of nearly 37,000 people also found that more males than
females smoke the drug, that marijuana use is highest among young
people between the ages of 15 and 24, and that cannabis use rose in
all age groups. The increase was noted in all provinces except
Manitoba. And more than 10 million Canadians admitted smoking
marijuana at least once in their lifetime.

Edward Adlaf, a researcher at the Centre for Addiction and Mental
health in Toronto, said the survey and others conducted by his own
organization raise concerns that more people are putting their health
at risk though drug use.

But "we know from surveys like this that, by and large, most of the
cannabis users that we find in mainstream populations are infrequent
users -- usually less than monthly," Mr. Adlaf said. In fact,
Statistics Canada found that 47 per cent of people who said they had
tried the drug in the past year had used it less than once a month.
Respiratory ailments, cognitive difficulties and other symptoms are
associated with heavy use over a prolonged period.

Even if there is no physical damage, there is still the possibility
that possession of marijuana will invite legal trouble. Charges across
Canada for simple possession increased 96 per cent between 1992 and
2002, from 23,178 to 50,246.

Two years ago, the Senate surprised the nation by tabling a report
recommending decriminalization.

"We did not agree with the idea of smoking period, much less
marijuana," Senator Colin Kenny, who was the deputy chairman of the
committee that compiled that report, said yesterday. But "we thought
it was a travesty that young people should get criminal records and
that a social matter like marijuana should be dealt with in a criminal
court."

And earlier this year, the right-wing Fraser Institute argued that the
drug should be legalized and regulated by government so police
resources could be diverted to more serious crime.

"Greater marijuana use described by Statscan is consistent with the
notion that our current policies are not successful," Stephen Easton,
the author of that report, said yesterday. "It is consistent with what
I expect will be an increasing openness to changes in legislation. It
is also consistent with increasing rewards to organized crime."

For obvious reasons, Melissa agrees the laws must be changed.

"I think they should decriminalize it for sure. I don't see what the
big deal is," she said. "Alcohol does the same or even more damage
than pot does. And drinking gets people rowdy while pot relaxes you."

Younger dope smokers on the rise

A study shows that the number of Canadians admitting to having used
marijuana or hashish increased for those 15 or older.

Percentage of admitted users

15-17 1994: 26 2002: 29

18-19 1994: 23 2002: 38

20-24 1994: 20 2002: 35

25-34 1994: 10 2002: 18

35-44 1994: 6 2002: 11

45-54 1994: 1 2002: 6

55-64 1994: * 2002: 2

65+ 1994: * 2002: *

* Number of people reporting marijuana use was so small that the date
was not statistically significant.

SOURCE: STATISTICS CANADA