Better education needed to warn youth of weed risks

The legalization of recreational marijuana on Oct. 17, 2018 was a popular move. The legislation’s attraction stems from the perceived advantages of legalization: getting organized crime out of the marijuana business, removing the heavy hand of the criminal justice system from large sections of the population, especially minors, and the proper regulation and control of a potentially harmful product. Initially, the federal government was quite methodical in preparing the groundwork for legalization. It published the results of a taskforce on legalization, which consulted with a large number of experts, organizations, and stakeholders. The report was balanced and comprehensive and stressed a number of desirable characteristics that a national recreational marijuana distribution system should have. One of them was that access to recreational marijuana by juveniles under the age of 18 should be strictly curtailed. Unfortunately, it gave no indication of how this was to be done. In addition, it recommended the adoption of programs that “develop and implement factual public education strategies to inform Canadians as to risks of problematic use and lower-risk use guidance.” As the complexity of the legalization process became clear the national plan was abandoned and the details of implementing it were devolved to the provinces. This is unfortunate since the provinces treated many of the taskforce’s proposals as optional, or they are not included as part of the arrangements. The most glaring example is the neglect of education programs directed towards young people. Government action is needed now on this. A great deal of medical research shows the long-term ill effects of under-age marijuana use. These include diminished cognitive ability, higher risks of depression and other mental illness, earlier onset of schizophrenia, and increased risks of respiratory diseases. While the focus has largely been on what happens to adults if they were under-aged pot smokers, there are major personal costs that adolescents must bear at the time of use. Research based on the 2012-13 Youth Smoking Survey shows that school grades are seriously affected by regular marijuana use under the age of 18. Students who use marijuana every day are three times less likely to be in the top grade category and 10 times more likely to be at the bottom of the grade distribution compared to those who have never used it. The average age for students at first use of marijuana is around 14. Every-day use increases with age or school grade, with more than seven per cent of Grade 12 students using marijuana every day. That marijuana use can have such a large impact on how students perform in school is very worrisome. Frequent marijuana users have dramatically lower academic performance. Consequently, they are less likely to be able to continue in the educational system, less likely to go to university because of their lower marks, and possibly face poorer employment prospects because they are less attractive to employers. Instead of concentrating on how to get adolescents to abstain from using marijuana, the debate has focused on the appropriate age for the legal use of marijuana: 18 or 21, or possibly 25, as has been suggested for Quebec. This misses the point. All the respondents in the survey started using marijuana when it was illegal. In 2013, kids aged 12 to 17 accounted for the largest proportion of marijuana-possession offences. Clearly, teens pay little attention to legal sanctions. It’s just wishful thinking to believe that setting the legal age at 18 or 21 will have any effect on adolescent use. With legalization, it is most probable that under-age use will rise irrespective of the legal age limit for use. The trend in THC (Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol) content, the psychoactive compound in marijuana, is strongly upward. These two changes in the marijuana landscape foreshadow serious consequences for existing and new adolescent users. It is for these reasons that it is so important that large-scale educational programs, like those that were used to educate young people about the health costs of cigarette smoking, be put in place in schools across the country as soon as possible. There are good reasons to believe that such an initiative would be successful. Data from the 2017 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey shows that while 64 per cent of Grade 7 and 8 students perceived great harm from regular marijuana use, only 29 per cent of students in Grades 9 to 12 felt this way. There is considerable scope for making older high school students better informed about the risks of using marijuana. Other evidence on student attitudes suggests that when risks are clear they lead adolescents to alter their behaviour to avoid them. Positive policy impacts are certainly possible. It is time for the federal government and the provinces and territories to take their social responsibilities seriously and get together to design and implement effective educational policies. That was what was promised and that is what should be done. James McIntosh is an economics professor with Concordia University in Montreal. The Hill Times

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Better education needed to warn youth of weed risks

A great deal of medical research shows the long-term ill effects of under-age marijuana use.

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