Canada’s cannabis legalization has not resulted in more stoned teens: study
“With such categorical fears now shown to be largely unfounded, this should provide the basis to move forward on more nuanced grounds.”
Widespread fears that legalization of recreational weed in Canada would put pot in the hands of children and ravage the country’s youth have shown to be unfounded, according to a new study published in the Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child Psychiatry.
Authored by the University of Calgary’s Rebecca Haines-Saah, PhD, with Benedikt Fischer, PhD, the authors contend there has been “little substantiative evidence to support the claim” that legalization has resulted in an increase in youth cannabis consumption or that it has posed a “threat to youth” since the drug was green lit in October 2018.
The study aims to “reconsider the arguments made about the potential consequences of legalization for youth,” and outlines three major issues expressed by legalization opponents, namely “that use by youth would increase, that any use before age 25… causes irreversible harm to developing brains, and that adolescent use would be associated with increased incidence of severe mental illness.”
But youth consumption has not increased. “Regarding prevalence, there appears to have been no marked increase in cannabis use by youth in Canada yet,” the authors state, citing Canadian government-funded surveys indicating that use has remained steady since legalization took effect.
Although youth don’t appear to be smoking more weed or suffering other undue harms in the wake of legalization, lead author Haines-Saah notes there are improvements to be made with regard to youth and cannabis, pinpointing certain deficiencies in public health research and data collection.
“Comparable ‘race-based’ data are not available in Canada, but are urgently required given the documented presence of entrenched racial bias, targeting and surveillance of Black and Indigenous youth in Canadian policing and criminal justice systems,” she writes.
She further emphasized the importance of considering how “focusing narrowly on clinical outcomes has neglected the association between criminalization and social inequities, where the burdens are disproportionate for marginalized and racialized youth.”
The authors write that they hope showing some pot policy critics’ fears to be unsubstantiated will allow researchers, policymakers and others to focus on more pressing issues surrounding cannabis and children. “With such categorical fears now shown to be largely unfounded, this should provide the basis to move forward on more nuanced grounds,” they note.
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