POT GAP WIDENS

TORONTO -- A massive pot-smoking generational gap between Canada's young
people and their parents is widening, a new Sun-Leger poll shows.

More than a third of young adults (36%), those aged 18-24, have smoked
marijuana in the past year compared to only 8% of their parents - those in
the 35-54 age range - according to the new survey taken April 1-6.

The percentage of Canadian youth who smoke marijuana - 58% have tried it by
age 24, according to the poll - has been continually rising since 1993 and
is now among the highest in the world.

"Absolutely parents should be concerned. What if trying the drug moves on
to regular use?" said Diane Buhler, executive with the Parent Action Group
on Drugs.

"The experimenting begins when the kids are in high school. The kids do
tell us marijuana is easily available and consistently used in their peer
groups. It's all around them."

While more than a third of people 18-24 have recently smoked, only 24% of
25-34-year-olds have puffed pot in the past year. After age 34, the rate
drops off dramatically with only 1% of seniors older than 65 lighting up
last year.

"I think what you're seeing is a lot of people experimenting with the drug
at a young age and then they are done with it," Buhler said. "Be careful
not to overreact to experimentation, but parents have to be very aware of
use increases."

A similar poll two years ago showed the same results for the older age
groups but only 30% of young adults aged 18-24 had smoked in the year previous.

"The response we're getting consistently is, 'It can't be so bad, it's used
for medicine, how can you say it's as bad for you as alcohol?' " Buhler said.

Public awareness and education campaigns dealing with marijuana are almost
non-existent.

"We don't have a Canada drug strategy and the provincial drug strategy is
not active," she said.

The irony, Buhler said, is that if the drug laws were relaxed the federal
and provincial governments would have to deal with the issue and spend more
money on educating youth.

"That's what we're hoping," Buhler said. "Right now the debate around
legalization has taken over completely from the health issues. It would be
better if we could find a solution and end that debate."

Canada's Marijuana Party Leader Marc-Boris St.-Maurice said legalization
would actually bring more controls to the smoking habits of young people.

"As with alcohol and cigarettes, teens will still use drugs including
marijuana," St. Maurice said. "But by having the state decide the
parameters within which a person can properly obtain marijuana is a much
more effective safeguard than the current situation where a dealer is not
concerned with the age of the buyer nor their safety."

The poll surveyed 1,501 people across Canada and sample results can be
considered accurate to within 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.