Pubdate: Mon, 10 Jan 2005
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2005 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact:  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

SMOKE SIGNALS

A new Health Canada report on the attitudes of adolescents and teens 
towards marijuana and tobacco indicates kids believe toking is less 
hazardous to a person's health and that buying a joint is easier than 
buying cigarettes. This is instructive to legislators and parents.

The findings - the result of focus groups in four Canadian cities - are 
useful to parents: Smoking either drug is risky. There is good evidence pot 
is no more dangerous than alcohol - a fact teenagers seem aware of as 
surveys indicate more and more are using marijuana. But the emphasis of 
public campaigns on demonizing tobacco also seems to have given pot too 
free a ride.

A bill to decriminalize marijuana, expected soon in Parliament, would 
replace jail terms with fines for simple possession of marijuana. But it 
will not cut pot's ties to organized criminal gangs and the wider drug 
trade, arguably a greater hazard to kids in the school yard. The failure of 
law to sway teens away from pot is apparent. The fact regulation and 
education work with tobacco suggests marijuana, too, could be legal and 
well-controlled. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake