WE'RE WARY OF POT RISKS

Canadians Think Drugs Are About Health, Not Laws

Most Canadians believe smoking marijuana regularly poses health
hazards, a poll commissioned by the federal government indicates.

A strong majority of people also feels trying the drug ecstasy once
or twice is as harmful as smoking cigarettes daily, according to the
survey conducted for the Health Department.

The newly released research suggests Canadians perceive drug abuse as
a health issue more than a matter for police and the courts.

The results come amid the latest round of the long-running debate in
federal circles about the merits of decriminalizing marijuana, as
well as controversy over newly popular club drugs such as ecstasy,
which has beenlinked to a number of deaths.

The department hired Ipsos-Reid to take the poll as a means of
gauging support for government intervention in the area of substance
abuse.

The survey of 1,003 Canadians, conducted during the last week of
March, is considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points.

Sixty-seven per cent felt smoking pot on a regular basis was harmful
to the smoker or others. Forty percent thought trying marijuana once
or twice posed harm; 38 per cent believed it would have little
negative effect.

In a recent editorial, the Canadian Medical Association Journal said
the 1.5 million Canadians who smoke marijuana for recreational
purposes could attest to the "minimal negative health effects of
moderate use."

However, a 1998 paper by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, a
federally funded think-tank, said that far from being a benign drug,
marijuana can have negative effects on the respiratory system,
physical co-ordination, fetal development and memory.

Three-quarters of people surveyed by the pollster considered taking
an ecstasy tablet even once or twice to be harmful.

Dubbed the "hug drug" because of the warm feelings it produces,
ecstasy -- often taken at all-night dance parties -- can lead to
severe dehydration and life-threatening heat stroke. Early research
suggests it may also cause brain damage.

About the same proportion of respondents -- 76 per cent -- believed
smoking cigarettes daily to be damaging to health.

Alcohol was seen as more benign. Thirty-seven per cent of people said
having one or two alcoholic drinks nearly every day would be harmful.

Perhaps not surprisingly, 95 per cent felt that injecting highly
addictive drugs such as heroin and cocaine on a regular basis caused
harm. Almost as many -- 90 per cent -- considered injecting these
drugs just once or twice to be damaging.

Women, residents of the Atlantic provinces and Canadians aged 55 and
older were more likely than others to feel that using the drugs
examined posed harm.

Illicit Drug Use

The survey also found drug issues were generally worrisome to
Canadians. Thirty-eight per cent of respondents said they were very
concerned about illicit drug use, consumption of alcohol and
cigarette smoking in their communities. Another 40 per cent were
somewhat concerned.

Asked why one shouldn't use illicit drugs such as marijuana, heroin
and cocaine, 88 per cent of people chose the rationale "these drugs
may harm their health" over "it is against the law" -- the choice of
just 11 per cent.

When presented with options for addressing drug abuse, 78 per cent of
those surveyed preferred that the government assign priority to the
prevention and treatment of drug abuse, while 21 per cent said
emphasis should be on law enforcement and imprisonment of users.

Small Penalty

In recent years, the RCMP and the association representing Canadian
police chiefs have advocated making the penalty for possession of
small amounts of marijuana a fine not unlike a parking ticket, rather
than a criminal record.

However, the Canadian Police Association, which represents
rank-and-file officers, objects to decriminalization, saying it would
weaken moral disapproval of drug use, dampen worker productivity and
result in higher health costs.