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Canada  

Driving stoned on rise

With Ottawa poised to legalize recreational marijuana next year, researchers are keeping a close eye on use of the so-called demon weed, which has been steadily trending upward over the last couple of decades.

In Ontario, for instance, a survey released Wednesday by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health found that cannabis use virtually doubled between 1996 and 2015, rising from about eight per cent to almost 15 per cent of respondents.

Significant increases were found among all age groups, but especially among 18- to 29-year-olds, with the proportion of pot smokers jumping from about 18 per cent in 1996 to 38 per cent in 2015.

"We also see that the cannabis-using population is aging, as well," said senior scientist Robert Mann, who co-authored the CAMH Monitor report on substance use and mental health status among a representative sample of more than 5,000 Ontario adults.

Last year, 23 per cent of those using marijuana were aged 50 and older — an eight-fold jump since 1977, when just three per cent of users were in that age bracket.

One finding of particular concern is the proportion of respondents who reported getting behind the wheel after using cannabis. In the last five years, that figure doubled, rising to three per cent in 2015 from 1.5 per cent in 2010.

"A lot of people have the sense that cannabis does not impair your driving or that they're able to compensate for the effects of cannabis on driving," said Mann. "They think it's not as dangerous as alcohol is, and maybe that they're even safer drivers if they're driving after cannabis use.

"That's not true and I think that's a dangerous perception for people to have," he said, noting that research over the last 20 years suggests that getting high on weed significantly increases the risk of being involved in a motor vehicle collision.



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