Pubdate: Sat, 17 Nov 2012
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Joanne Laucius
Page: J1

A SNAPSHOT OF THE OTTAWA TEEN POT SMOKER

Are teens more dazed and confused than they were a generation ago? It
depends on how you look at it, as Joanne Laucius discovers

In Ottawa last year, twice as many students in Grade 7 to 12 reported
lighting up a marijuana joint as lighting up a cigarette.

But that is only part of the picture. About one per cent said they
used marijuana every day. About four per cent said they had used it in
the past week. And 15 per cent said they had used it in the past four
weeks. About three per cent of the total teen population of Ottawa
reports some signs of a cannabis dependency problem, issues like
feeling anxious without cannabis, or wishing they could stop.

The figures are among those in a report on teens and substance abuse
to be released by the end of the year.

The Ontario Student Drug Use Survey, which began in 1977 and is done
every two years, has always included Ottawa students. Beginning in
2009 and again in 2011, more than 1,000 extra Ottawa students were
surveyed because Ottawa Public Health wanted to get enough information
to track trends over time and compare different populations of students.

"Since alcohol and marijuana are the most commonly-used substances
among youth, it's important to follow the trends over time," says
Jacqueline Willmore, an epidemiologist with Ottawa Public Health.

For example, across the province, students are more likely to use
marijuana now than they were in the early 1990s.

The question is whether the 1990s were a blip or increased cannabis
use is a long-term trend.

Does the fact that more students use marijuana than cigarettes mean
that youth are replacing tobacco with pot, for example? Not likely,
says Willmore.

"Teen cigarette smoking has been going down for the past several
years," she says. "But I don't think cigarette smoking is being
replaced with cannabis."

Here's what the survey of Ottawa students found about marijuana use
among the city's teens:

A significantly higher proportion of Grades 9 to 12 students reported
cannabis use compared to Grades 7 to 8 students. Cannabis use is
relatively rare among students in Grades 7 and 8, and peaks at 41 per
cent among Grade 12 students.

In 2011, Grades 9 to 12 students in Ottawa were more likely to report
cannabis use than in 2009 - 32 per cent in 2011 compared to 22 per
cent in 2009. Ottawa Public Health says it has to do more years of
data collection before its possible to say whether this is the
beginning of a trend, or an anomaly.

Students who spoke only English at home were more likely to smoke pot
than students who spoke a language other than English or French in the
home - 28 per cent for those who spoke English vs. 12 per cent for the
teens who spoke neither English or French.

Rates of cannabis use were no different between Ottawa and Ontario, or
between boys and girls. Students in Toronto, by the way, were among
those in the province least likely to use marijuana.

Teen drug use is nothing new. But the drugs teens use have varied over
time.

"Until about five years ago, the No. 1 drug was alcohol, the No. 2 was
marijuana. Now the No. 1 drug is marijuana, and the No. 2 is alcohol,"
says Paul Welsh, executive director of Rideauwood Addiction & Family
Services, whose counsellors see some 1,400 students a year though
school-based counselling programs at 49 English-language high schools
in the region.

Welsh can only speculate as to why this is happening. "If you go to
school drunk, you'll get caught. If you go to school stoned, it will
be less noticeable," he says.

While more teens are shying away from harder drugs, parents and
schools have raised a lot of concern recently about marijuana use
among teens in Grades 7 and 8. It's difficult to tell if there is more
marijuana use among young teens or if parents are noticing it more, he
says.

"Clients are coming to us in worse and worse shape. It's related to
all kinds of things - cuts to education, health care, welfare. We're
seeing what happens downstream when services are cut to a population.
The Ministry of Health is concerned about the number of people who end
up at the emergency," says Welsh.

"Kids who get stoned early are more likely to end up with addictions
later in life. If they deal with problems by getting stoned, they're
not learning life skills."

There's a growing evidence that a regular marijuana habit that starts
in the teens can have long-ranging negative effects. There has been a
link between smoking cannabis and schizophrenia. The evidence suggests
that smoking pot as a teen can trigger psychotic episodes at a younger
age for those who are predisposed to it.

Meanwhile, a study released last summer in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Science USA stirred up concerns about the
long-term effects of starting to smoke marijuana as a teen.

Based on a long-term study of more than 1,000 New Zealanders born in
1972 and 1973 and a battery of tests given to the subjects at various
points in their lives, the study concluded that persistent use of
marijuana before the age of 18 resulted in lasting harm to
intelligence, memory and attention. What's more, quitting or reducing
the use of marijuana did not restore functioning.

About five per cent of those in the group were dependent on marijuana,
using it more than once a week. Those who used pot in their teens and
used it for a long time after had an average decline of eight IQ
points. Those who took up marijuana later did not show the same
decline. It couldn't be explained by use of alcohol or other drugs, or
less education. Friends and relatives also reported that these people
had more problems with attention and memory.

In IQ, the mean is 100. This means that half of the population has a
lower score, and the other half a higher score. Someone who has an IQ
of 100 is at the 50th percentile. Take off eight points, and that same
person is in the 29th percentile. While eight IQ points might not
sound like much, losing eight points reduces the chances of fulfilling
educational potential or landing a good job.

It was thought that marijuana users who suffered from loss of
attention, cognitive abilities and working memory would recover when
they stopped using marijuana, says psychiatrist Dr. Robert Milin,
director of the adolescent day treatment unit at the Royal Ottawa
Mental Health Centre. The evidence suggests that's not true for
everyone, says Milin, who points out that people rarely start smoking
marijuana as adults.

"If you have average working memory and you drop a little, it makes a
difference," he says. "Some people have a large reservoir of working
memory. If you're in the average range, it's a big difference in what
you are able to do."

Marijuana also impairs executive function such as motivation and
initiation. Is marijuana dangerous for teens? "It's going to affect
their cognitive abilities and working memory," says Milin. "These are
important areas for learning. The teenager's job is learning."
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MAP posted-by: Matt