cannabisnews.com: After New Study, It Should Be Made Easier To Toke





After New Study, It Should Be Made Easier To Toke
Posted by CN Staff on July 22, 2004 at 08:01:27 PT
By Stuart Hunter and Ethan Baron, The Province
Source: Province
As someone who has been jailed in every province, B.C. marijuana activist Marc Emery considers himself a man with his finger on Canada's pot pulse.He said yesterday's Statistics Canada report, 2002 Canadian Community Health Survey, indicating more Canadians than ever are toking up, shows the growing need for new legislation to make it easier for people to access marijuana and squeeze organized crime out of the drug scene.
The report says that the number of Canadians who admit to indulging in marijuana or hashish nearly doubled to 12.2 per cent between 1989 and 2002 -- and the highest rates of use were among teens. That was a substantial jump from 6.5 per cent in 1989 and 7.4 per cent in 1994."I think it's pretty accurate," said Emery, president of the B.C. Marijuana Party. "I'd say there are about three million smokers at any one time who would be considered regular smokers, or about 12 per cent."It's ingrained in our national psyche to smoke pot at some point in your life and as these children grow up the numbers will continue to increase, so it's going to continue to get larger and larger."Provincially, B.C. had the highest rate of cannabis use at 15.7 per cent, Nova Scotia was second at 13.7 and Quebec was third at 13.5 per cent, according to the survey.Many of the big gains were among youth. Thirty-eight per cent of teens aged 18 and 19 reported smoking pot or hash in the previous 12 months, while 29 per cent of teens 15 through 17 indulged.That dropped to six per cent in adults 45 to 54 years old and virtually disappears after age 65. Men in nearly every age group were more likely to toke up than women. Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/easier.htmSource: Province, The (CN BC)Author: Stuart Hunter and Ethan Baron, The ProvincePublished: Thursday, July 22, 2004Copyright: 2004 CanWest Interactive Inc. Contact: provletters png.canwest.comWebsite: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmPot is Canadian Drug of Choice, Statscan Sayshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19213.shtmlPot Use Surges as Martin Weighs Decrimhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19212.shtmlCanada's Pot Exports Overstated: RCMPhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19206.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by Commonsense on July 22, 2004 at 22:08:05 PT
I used the wrong MTF numbers
The numbers I cited from the Monitoring the Future survey were for all illicit drugs, not just marijuana. The MTF numbers for past year use of marijuana for tenth and twelth graders in 2002 are 30.3% and 36.2% respectively. That would mean that in the neighborhood of 33% of 15 to 17 year old teens used marijuana in the year preceeding the survey.
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Comment #2 posted by Commonsense on July 22, 2004 at 20:45:16 PT
These numbers are similar to ours.
These numbers are similar to those in the U.S., according to the 2002 National Study on Drug Use & Health. Our government survey doesn't break down the age categories quite like the Canadian study. But when I break down the numbers it looks like about 26% of kids 15 through 17 reported smoking pot within 12 months in 2002. It looks like nearly 34% of the 18 and 19 year old crowd reported smoking within a year. It appears by my calculations from the numbers that approximately 6.4% of persons 45-54 reported smoking marijuana within the past year in 2002. I was looking at the NSDUH tables 1.20A and 1.20B which can be found here: http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/nhsda/2k2nsduh/html/Sect1peTabs1to110A.htm#tab1.20aFor comparison, according to the results of the 2002 Monitoring the Future survey, about 34.8% of tenth graders and 41% of twelth graders in the U.S. reported having used marijuana within a year of the 2002 survey. That is considerably higher than the NSDUH numbers. If those numbers are more accurate than the NSDUH numbers, one could estimate that closer to 38% of teens 15 to 17 used marijuana in 2002. That's quite a bit higher than the about 26% or so of teens 15 to 17 who reported using marijuana in the year preceeding the 2002 NSDUH.The MTF table for annual and 30 day use is here: http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/data/03data/pr03t2.pdf
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Comment #1 posted by CorvallisEric on July 22, 2004 at 16:27:50 PT
Allure
According to new Health Minister Dosanjh:"It's just the high in getting something in a stealthy fashion. If you allow people to possess it in small quantities for personal use, the allure kind of disappears for some people."If you can't obtain it from a legal source, or grow it legally, then it's still stealth and underground and alluring for that reason. Since Dosanjh is NDP, not Liberal, maybe he'll understand one day.
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