Photo: The Canadian Press

The Liberals campaigned on a promise to legalize — as well as regulate and restrict — marijuana for recreational use, arguing the existing regime was doing little to keep it out of the hands of young people.

The Cannabis Act, also known as Bill C-45, sets the minimum legal age for the purchase of cannabis at 18, although provinces were allowed to raise the age as they saw fit. Most provinces and territories are harmonizing it with the legal age for alcohol.

The Conservatives, largely against the proposed legislation, have been asking why the legal age is not higher, given the concerns some health professionals have about the impact on young, developing brains.

The Liberals have often responded by saying that Canadian youth consume cannabis at a higher rate than virtually anywhere else, so raising the minimum legal age any higher would do little to get the drug off the black market.

Do young Canadians really smoke more weed than anyone else on the planet?

THE FACTS

A 2016 report the WHO published on that data showed Canada was in fifth place when it came to 15-year-olds who reported using cannabis in their lifetime. Canada was in second place behind France when it came to 15-year-olds who had used it within the past 30 days.

THE EXPERTS

Statistics Canada has started paying more attention to cannabis as the country gets ready for the new reality.

On Wednesday, Statistics Canada also released the first set of data from its new national cannabis survey, which showed 23 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24 having used cannabis in the past three months. Twenty-six per cent of Canadians aged 25 to 34 did the same.

THE VERDICT

The Liberals are being accurate — so long as they provide the caveats — when they say Canadian youth are among the most frequent users of cannabis in the world, especially since several domestic sources also show high usage rates.