POT PUFFERS LIVE DANGEROUSLY

Survey Of Teens Looks At Drugs, Behaviour

Some teens engage in risky behaviour as they grow older and sometimes this
"is associated with marijuana smoking," Statistics Canada said in a report
yesterday. The agency also found most teens surveyed said they're healthy
and optimistic about their futures.

Among 16- and 17-year-olds surveyed in 2000-2001, "the incidence of
marijuana use was 1.8 to 2.6 times higher among youth who reported
participating in risky behaviours such as staying out all night without
permission, taking money from parents and damaging others' property," the
agency reported.

Fred Mathews of Central Toronto Youth Services said he's concerned this will
be seen as a cause and effect, rather than a correlation.

"You can't pin it on smoking pot," he said. "Some teens are predisposed to
risk-taking behaviours that have nothing to do with smoking marijuana and
that (drugs) are just coincidental to what they are doing."

Marc Emery, president of the B.C. Marijuana party and publisher of Cannabis
Culture magazine, agrees and adds that all teens are "bored and hormonal and
will do things ... they crave and seek out sex, drugs, fast cars ... any
excitement."

The survey said among 16- and 17-year-olds who reported staying out all
night without permission, 72% reported that they had tried marijuana, while
the remaining 28% reported that they had not.

For 16- and 17-year-olds who said they had taken money from their parents,
64% said they smoked pot, and for those who reported they had damaged
others' property, 69% reported they had smoked pot; 44% of all teens
questioned said they had smoked pot in the 12 months prior to the survey.

"Marijuana is so pervasive among people under 20 that it is in every single
substrata -- from honour students to dropouts to criminals to community
leaders," Emery said.

Of the teens surveyed, 95% said they were healthy and optimistic about their
future.

The figures are from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth
developed by Human Resources Development Canada and Statistics Canada.