Pubdate: Sat, 21 Nov 2015
Source: Sudbury Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Osprey Media
Contact: http://www.thesudburystar.com/letters
Website: http://www.thesudburystar.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/608
Author: Carol Mulligan
Page: A3

MANAGE CANNABIS, HEALTH UNIT SAYS

Government should regulate it the same way it does with tobacco and 
booze, board says

The Sudbury & District Board of Health has a message for Prime 
Minister Justin Trudeau and his majority Liberal government.

If you're going to legalize marijuana, take a public health approach 
when drafting legislation doing that.

The board passed a motion this week saying it supports a public 
health approach to the cannabis legalization framework, "including 
strict health-focused regulations to reduce the health and societal 
harms associated with cannabis use."

The board is calling on government to take a similar approach to the 
way alcohol and tobacco are managed. That would include controlled 
availability, age limits, pricing, advertising restrictions and 
targeted prevention initiatives.

Brenda Stankiewicz, a public health nurse with the Sudbury & District 
Health Unit, said it may sound "counter" to public health to accept 
the legalization of marijuana. But if it's going to happen, public 
health wants the government to pass legislation that will mitigate 
the damage cannabis can do.

"Anything you inhale into your lungs, can't be good for your lungs," 
said Stankiewicz. It can cause lung diseases and cancers specific to 
marijuana. Users can also develop a dependence on marijuana and there 
are psychological risks, as well.

Fifty per cent of Canadians admit to having tried cannabis. In the 
health unit catchment area, 23 per cent of youths say they have tried 
it and three per cent use it on a regular basis.

When you think about the whole picture, you must consider more than 
the health issues, Stankiewicz added.

"You possess it, you have it, so you end up in court, you end up with 
a criminal record. If it's legalized, that stuff is no longer on the 
books," she said.

The legal process hurts society's most vulnerable members if they're 
charged, she said. People with money can hire a lawyer to help them 
beat criminal charges. The poor cannot afford to do that.

Public health and other health sectors have learned hard lessons from 
the way tobacco and alcohol use has been managed.

"We know what some of those stumbling blocks were and know some of 
the things to try to get around," said Stankiewicz.

Think of "the olden days" when everyone smoked just about anywhere. 
Public health was a late starter when it came to tobacco, Stankiewicz 
admits. It was originally touted as a "good product for you," she said.

The health unit isn't saying it's happy marijuana may be legalized, 
but it recognizes it's a possibility and it wants legalization looked 
at through a public health lens.

"That we're going to do, the health promotion pieces, that we're 
going to limit the use, that we're going to limit how they use, that 
we're going to limit marketing, which is another thing that's huge," 
said Stankiewicz.

Recall the sophisticated advertisements for tobacco products that 
were a mainstay of magazines and television in the 1950s and 1960s.

"Those are real markers for us as to what we don't want to do that 
now. We're going to control the marketing of these pieces. You're not 
going to see product placement in TV, you're not going to see product 
advertising on billboards."

The hope is that government will seriously consider what Stankiewicz 
calls the health promotion piece, "that it can do damage to your 
lungs and it can do damage to growing youth brains. It can be related 
to psychosis and mental illnesses, and we don't want that. So for 
those reasons, we want people to have that honest truth about marijuana."

Stankiewicz pointed to Colorado where edible marijuana is legal. 
People have purchased brownies made with cannabis, not thinking about 
the quantity of the substance they're getting.

It takes about an hour for it to impact you, "and by then, frankly, 
if you or I had brownies in the house, after an hour, how much have 
we had?" Stankiewicz quipped.

These are the issues the Sudbury & District Board of Health wants 
government to take into account.

"We're not supporting it, we're not against it, but if you are going 
to do it, these are the things you really need to consider," she said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom