Marijuana.com

Bellatrix

More Adolescents admit to Smoke Pot in Canada than Anywhere Else in the World

TheStar.com | Oct. 5, 2004. 06:30 PM

More Canadian young people appear to be butting out when it comes to cigarettes, but a growing number of pot smokers has put Canada at the top of the international heap for Marijuana use among young adolescents, a new study suggests.

"Canadian students are at the high end of using Marijuana frequently," said of Queens' University, principal investigator of the study on the health and well-being of the country's youth.

The 2002 study of 7,000 kids aged 11 to 15 from across Canada, released today, found that about 40 per cent reported using Marijuana in the previous year, about three per cent more than in Switzerland, second on the list of 35 countries conducting similar studies.

The Netherlands, where the sweet weed has long been decriminalized, was in the middle of the pack, said Boyce, a professor of community health at the Kingston, Ont., university.

Bellatrix; what, thay've got all these numbers from Switzerland, but the best they can give us for the Netherlands is "the middle of the pack"? The study also automatically links Marijuana use as indications of "high risk behaviour" and "negative peer influence," which I think is a faulty premise. I couldn't seem to find a copy of the Dutch equivalent to this study, but according to a publication of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the chart on page 21, cannabis use among those 12 and up are "near the middle" (as Boyce puts it) on a list of various countries. Now look at the chart on page 21 that shows a compasrison between drug use in the USA and the Netherlands. They seem to be pretty close when it comes to tabacco and alcohol, but look at the jump when we get into the prohibited drugs. The use is MUCH higher in the US than in the NL.

Questionnaires filled out by the Grades 6 to 10 students showed that 43 per cent of boys and 37 per cent of girls aged 11, 13 and 15 had used Marijuana, up a couple of percentage points over an earlier study in 1998.

While the research didn't look at reasons for pot being favoured over tobacco, Boyce speculated that its increased use is tied to the three As — affordability, availability and acceptability.

"In Canada, I think all three of those things come together so that it's actually used quite a bit by kids here. It's not so expensive, it's definitely available and with the legislation introduced in the last Parliament — and perhaps again in this one — that decriminalizes Marijuana use, it certainly provides a signal to kids that this is not a highly illegal activity."

Bellatrix; for a guy that seems to know so much about Dutch drug policy, Boyce is quick to make the mistake of linking "acceptable" and "not highly illegal" to making Marijuana more attractive to kids. Excuse me, but you just mentioned a country which doesn not enforce their laws against Marijuana are not enforced and the use among kids is LOWER. Hello? MacFly??

However, the picture for smoking is quite different, especially for girls.

While tobacco use among boys has remained steady, there was a huge drop in the proportion of 15-year-old girls who reported smoking daily — to 11 per cent in 2002 from 21 per cent in 1998. As well, the percentages of girls who smoke only occasionally or had tried smoking for the first time were also down.

That reverses a long-time trend in which more girls were smoking than their male peers.

"So there's something working," said Boyce. "It could be health-education messages, restricting purchases of smokes (by age) in stores, and maybe the guys just go ahead and get them anyway. Or it could also be cost. With the cost of cigarettes going up so high, maybe the girls are feeling that pinch more than the guys who might have more money from part-time jobs."

The study is the fourth in a series conducted by Queen's researchers and released by Health Canada since 1992. They provide not only a snapshot of how the country's youth are faring, but also a comparison to the United States and 33 other mostly European countries who take similar portraits of their young people under the auspices of the World Health Organization.

Bellatrix; this article makes it sound like this study was all about drug use. It wasn't; that portion was actually a very small part of the story. It angers me that much larger and more in-depth parts of the study about alcohol use, obesity and sexuality were completely overlooked. This is an indication of the media screaming like a hysterical child just to make trouble and get attention instead of doing their jobs. There have been a number of silly anti-Marijuana articles popping up lately in Canada. That, coupled with the Man squeezing us tighter, Faux News wanting to braodcast here (why? Come if you want, but I ho0pe you like the sound of crickets) and a Throne Speech that included a "Better Co-operation with our Imperial Overlords" section, it seems that the usual suspects are still trying hard to make Canada a Prohibitionist's Paradise.

On the other hand, I am very happy to see Canadian kids cutting their tabbacco use and enjoying the kind herb instead. Smoke if you got 'em, kids!

__________________

Marijuana.com Community Posting Guidelines
Marijuana.com Article Submission Guidelines

FREE MARC EMERY

 

Phyxius

Plus these studies only report those who admit to smoking. Who knows how many lied on their questionnaire, about smoking when they dont or about not smoking when they do.

Wait, who says girls dont get jobs too?

Bodega4*20

I don't think we're too much behind Canadian teenagers in smoking weed... that's all me and my friends do. Part time student, full time toker... and I would have to say about a good 40% of my school smokes weed or has smoked it. I've seen 9 - 10 year olds smoke weed, and it's pretty funny. But for real, the weed is plentiful and nobody really cares about cops.... it's just a plant, with nice effects. We're even having a competition this year to see who can toke up the most freshman.
Peace O'HI'O

Zilos

And its soo true, us Canadians, especially in BC, smoke ALOT of pot, there ain't many people i know that don't smoke it atleast every once and a while. And I used to smoke cigs too, but quit, and decided to just smoke pot.

__________________
:: Posting Guidelines :: 420 Lounge :: Hemp Cultivation :: Myths :: Canadian Laws :: U.S. Laws :: Recipes ::

marijuana lovar

screw you marijuana rocks