Is Canada going to pot?

The True North, Stoned And Free
The Numbers Are In, And We're Quite High On The List
So What's Behind Canadians' Enthusiasm For Marijuana?

By Rebecca Dube
The Globe and Mail
Monday July 16, 2007
Page L2

Listen Canada, we need to talk.

It's about your little pot habit.

Just look at these numbers from the United Nations. More people smoke in Canada than in nearly every other country. More than the Netherlands.

Dude, that has to tell you something.

Do you want to end up like Papua New Guinea or Micronesia?

Stop giggling. They are two real countries.

Canada is a naton of stoners. According to the United Nation's 2007 World Drug Report released last week, Canadians lead the industrialized world in marijuana smoking. Canadians are four times more likely to have smoked pot in the past than residents of nearly every other country: 16.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 64 use marijuana compared to a global average of 3.8 percent.

Why so high?

While experts aren't concerned about Canadians pot-smoking habits - they worry about abuse, not recreational use - they agree that the country's fondness for weed says somethig about our national character.

But opinions very widely on what, excactly it says.

"That's a reflection on our national accountability," says Albert de Golas, Director of the Toronto-based Prometheum Institute, an adddiction counselling Centre.

Dr. de Golas says the pot-smoking rates don't bother him, and he rearly sees people seeking treatment for marijuana dependence. But he thinks it's symptomatic of a collective lack of ambition.

"We have a very progressive economy and a tendency to be over protective of personal rights, much more so than other countries. We have a tendency to feel we have a right ot get everything without really having to earn it.
Some pot smokers, however, say Canada's high rate of recreational use is not because we're a nation of slackers, but merely a side effect of the country's go-getter work ethic. Canadians work hard and, unlike Europeans, don't get 10 weeks of vacation or two-hour lunches - so we find other ways to unwind.

"You're putting in way too much hours at work, you just want to go out and relax," says one user, a business owner and married father of three who smokes pot severat times a month. Marijuana, he explains, allows busy professionalss to "maximize your leisure time."

Who's Lighting up?
_______________
Percentage of the population aged 15-64 who have used marijuana withinn the past year.

TOP 5
Papua New Guinea 29.5
Micronesia 29.1
Ghana 21.5
Zambia 17.7
Camada 16.9

OTHER Countries
United Statis 12.6
Jamaica 10.7
England 8.7
Netherlands 6.1
Mexico 3.1
Source: 2006 World Drug Report, UN Office on Drugs and Crime

"You go to a bar, you're hanging out with friends - if you're stoned, everybody's funnier," he says. "If you're not sure about a movie? Get high, you'll like it better.

Pot's mainstream popularity shows how far Canada has progressed (or drifted, depending on your perspective) from its strait-laced roots. While siill illegal, marijuana has gained widespread social acceptance in Canada.

"Canadians have come far and fast from the kind of pasty white Protestant culture of the early post-War period to a much more diverse society founded on indivudual freedom," says Rudyard Griffiths, Co-founder of the Dominion Institute. "Soft drugs are probably part of that.

In 2001, Canada became the first country to legalize medical marijuana. In 2003, Jean Chretien's Liberals tabled a Bill to decriminalize marijuana possession, but the legislation died in 2006.

Still, 55 per cent of Canadians believe marijuana should be legal accourding to an Angus Reid poll conducted this June.

And many smokers aren't letting the current laws stop them.

Canadians are more likely to smoke pot than people in the Netherlands, where cannabis is legal yet only 6.8 per cent of the population had used it in the past year. The only countries more likely to spark up are Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, Ghana and Zambia.

Canadians are no slouches when it comes to other mind-altering substances, either. Alcohol use is 30 per cent higher than the global average, and Canada ranks fourth, after Spain, England and the United States, for cocaine use - 2.3 percent of the population tired cocaine in the past year.

But Canadians' laissez-faire attitude has limits, Mr. Griffiths says. Fore example, attitutes about pornograpy are much more conservative here than in Europe. And lighting a tobacco cigarette earns you more dirty looks in some circles than lighting up a joint.

"I don't think we're slouching toward Gomorrah," Mr. Griffiths says.

While some pin Canada's penchant for pot on social liberalism, others say it's just the opposite -the illegality of marijuana actually boost its appeal.

"The more somtehting is prohibited, the more it becomes appealing to some people," says Benedikt Fischer, a drug policy expert at the University of Victoria and a senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

"We're a very prohibitionist society when it comes to psychoative drugs, or fun, or anything that has a flavour of imorality," Dr. Fischer says. "This is a cultural knee-jerk reaction, the rejection of unaccepted norms."

Robin Ellins, proprietor of the Friendly Stranger, a head shop in Toronto, agrees.

"Consumption would go down if it was legal," he says., as shoppers browse among ornate bongs and hemp clothing. "That's definitely a big part of the attraction."

Mr Ellins thinks Canada's commanding lead in the global drug survey might be traced to a positive national trait: honesty.

Whereas some countries keep their reefer madness quiet, Canadians are proud pot smokers.

"We have a willingness to admit that we actually do partake," he says.