Pubdate: Tue, 09 Mar 2004 Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB) Copyright: 2004 The Edmonton Journal Contact: http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134 Author: Mark Senior Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?218 (Canadian Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs) Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n376/a08.html?28456 TOKERS MUST SMOKE LIKE CHIMNEYS TO KEEP UP WITH SENATE NUMBERS In "Millions of Canadians inhale despite pot laws" (Journal, March 4), a Senate report is cited as saying that about three million Canadians consume 770,000 kilograms of marijuana a year. Am I the only one who thinks that figure is a little unlikely? That would work out to an average of 256 grams of pot per Canadian pot smoker per year, or about five grams per week. For those not familiar with the effects of marijuana, let's just say that would mean 10 per cent of Canadians are stoned out of their gourds for perhaps a third of their waking hours. This raises the question of what sort of work they can be doing while so stoned that still pays enough money to buy all that pot. As a thought experiment, suppose that the 770,000-kilogram figure is correct. Let's say one per cent of Canadians, about 300,000, smoke absolutely heroic quantities of pot, averaging perhaps two grams a day. That would account for about 219,000 kilograms. A more typical user would smoke a little pot on the weekends, averaging maybe a gram per week. To account for the remaining 551,000 kilograms, that would require fully 10.6 million Canadians, about 30 per cent of the population, to be occasional pot users. I couldn't say how accurate those figures might be, but surely they're closer than the Senate's figure of only 10 per cent. Mark Senior, Edmonton - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom