Buzzby

What's Your Poison?
Nelly Elayoubi | Ottawa Sun | 03/24/2005

JOHN STARTS his day like most people do. He wakes up early, travels to work at a private Ottawa firm and puts in his eight hours.

Then comes home time. Then comes toke time.

"It relaxes me. It helps me focus and concentrate on my hobbies," John says.

The 27-year-old smokes up daily and tried it for the first time about 11/2 years ago.

John isn't alone. In fact, more and more Canadians are reporting frequent use of pot, according to the Canadian Addiction Survey, a report released yesterday by Health Canada, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and the Canadian Executive Council on Addictions.

Among the findings, 44.5% of respondents report using marijuana at least once in their lives. That number jumps dramatically for respondents in the 18-to-24 age group, 70% of whom report experimenting with pot.

About 18% of past-year pot users in Canada reported daily use, said Edward Adlaf, research scientist with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and a research director on the project.

CHANGING NORMS

"One reason we have more people reporting cannabis use is partly due to changing norms and attitudes about cannabis that have occurred over the last five to six years," Adlaf said, noting the shift is mostly in young adults thinking there are fewer risks in smoking dope.

It's an area Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse's director of research and policy, Patricia Begin, wants to see further analysis of.

"That's one thing we'll definitely want to look at, because I think that helps better target responses," Begin said.

About a third of cannabis users reported impaired control of some kind, meaning they would like to cut down but haven't been successful.

Following pot, hallucinogens and cocaine ranked next with 11% of Canadians reporting lifetime use.

In Ontario, 10.5% people reported having used hallucinogens and 8.7% using coke.

In the past year, about 2% of Ontarians reported using an illicit drugs other than marijuana.

Although strides have been made with drinking and driving in recent years, the survey shows more and more Canadians are reporting being passengers with drunk drivers -- now 18% compared to 8% reported in 1994.

A total of 13,909 Canadians age 15 and over participated in the survey, with a minimum of 1,000 people in each province.

There were more than 400 individual items on the survey and Begin said there are numerous outcomes that haven't been analyzed so far.

"I think that would be really, really helpful and important in terms of public and health policy," Begin said.

Age, particularly looking at youth, and gender are areas Begin wants to see investigated further.

"When we look at the data, age and sex, particularly males and males between 18 and 24 years old are the major users and the heavy users," Begin said.

nelly.elayoubi@ott.sunpub.com

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Phyxius

Wait wait wait. "Impaired control of some kind" means they tried to cut down and couldn't? I think they're making assumptions on this one. I'd like to see how this question was worded.

WNB

I don't see the assumption there. But most people who do anything that is viewed as "bad" by society try to cut down at one point or another. They're not trying to cut down because of any tangible problem, but because humans are social animals and society tells them they should be breaking norms.

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Cassius

But wouldn't that apply to ALL marijuana users? Everyone faces this stigma.

The article suggested that only the X percentage who reported "impaired control of some kind" tried to cut down and couldn't.

Now, obviously, any marijuana user who smokes more than very lightly would report "impaired control of some kind". But I don't see the association to how this "impaired control" would equal trying to cut down and couldn't.

What you suggested would be "X percentage of users reported they felt a stigma from society", suggesting that they tried to cut down but couldn't, which is different.

Even so, even if they could demonstrate the link between "impaired control" and "cutting down" -- how do they know they were unsuccessful at cutting down?

To me, "impaired control" is the EXACT reason why many people smoke! They LIKE the "impaired control"! No?

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Buzzby

I sometimes experience impaired control of my appetite when I smoke. I'm trying to cut down on the tortilla chips and Jalapeño Cheese Dip.

ChronicSmoke7

mmmmmmmm.....jalapeno cheese dip, ill eat three ice cream sandwiches just for dessert