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Canada: Legalized cannabis an experiment with more questions than answers Kwame McKenzie Toronto Star Tuesday 16 Oct 2018 It did not say: On Oct. 17, you will be part of one of the largest experiments ever in the world as Canada becomes the first high-income country to legalize cannabis for recreational use — thank you for taking part. than answers By Kwame McKenzieOpinion Tues., Oct. 16, 2018 I got my card from the Government of Canada through the mail, “Cannabis Act Here’s What You Need to Know.” But, I thought there was something missing. It did not say: On Oct. 17, you will be part of one of the largest experiments ever in the world as Canada becomes the first high-income country to legalize cannabis for recreational use — thank you for taking part. In this file photo taken on April 20, 2018 a woman smokes marijuana during the annual 4/20 rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. In this file photo taken on April 20, 2018 a woman smokes marijuana during the annual 4/20 rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. (LARS HAGBERG / AFP/GETTY IMAGES) This is an experiment for three reasons: First, we really do not know the extent of problems legalization of cannabis will cause. Second, the government did not follow scientific advice for some of the known health risks. Last, we do not know how effective the laws and regulations will be to mitigate any social or health impacts. I am especially interested in the health. We do not know all the possible impacts of legalization. Your card will tell you to “Know the health effects” but you will have to go to the cannabis website to find out what they are. That is where they warn you that you should not use cannabis when you are pregnant or breast feeding because of risks to the fetus and where they discuss the impacts on attention, memory and learning. It is also where they explain that using cannabis before the age of 25 can have lasting effects on your brain, that 1-in-3 people will develop a problem with their cannabis use and 1-in-6 who start using as a teenager will develop full blown addiction. But you have to follow a hypertext link inside the main cannabis page to another government website if you want to find out that cannabis can trigger schizophrenia, increases your risk of depression and can cause anxiety and panic attacks. One thing I found on the Royal College of Psychiatrists website, which is not given as advice on the Canadian government websites, is that you may feel high for only up to four hours but studies have shown the impact on your abilities to use machinery can last up to 24 hours. You might be interested in President Donald Trump pauses during his meeting to discuss potential damage from Hurricane Michael, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Wednesday. How long a stain will Trump’s poisonous legacies leave? The smell of marijuana will soon be present in all of our public spaces thanks to Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government, Martin Regg Cohn writes. Thanks to Doug Ford, the sky’s the limit for marijuana in Ontario The home Russell King and nephew Lebron Lackey had built in Mexico Beach, Fla., was largely unaffected by Hurricane Michael. Among the ruins of Mexico Beach stands a house built ‘for the big one’ Advice to not drive or work while high is useful but is incomplete. You can take cannabis on Sunday night and still be impaired at work on Monday though you do not feel high. One area where the decision not to follow scientific advice when developing the law may be problematic is on the age for legal use. Scientists who gave advice to the government told them cannabis affects the growing brain and that brain development does not stabilize until a person is 25. Scientific advice is that people should put off cannabis use until they are in their 20s. The government thought it was impractical to have a later legal age of use and so made the age 18/19. The possible problems that may cause have been highlighted by a recent study from the University of Montreal. They followed 3,800 adolescents and found that cannabis had lasting impacts on learning attention and decision making. They concluded that cannabis was more dangerous than alcohol. In their study 75 per cent of youth aged 13 years and up had used alcohol but only 28 per cent had ever used cannabis. If legalizing cannabis makes it a right of passage like alcohol, I would expect the percentage of people who use it to rise. Which brings me to the last experimental area: how effective we will be at mitigating harm? I understand the government’s view that they want to regulate the cannabis industry to decrease the harm to the public. I have not been able to find any scientific evidence that legalization improves public health. It is a theory that we are testing. It may be correct, it may not. Similarly, I could not find evidence that legalizing cannabis for 18/19-year olds and then telling them they should not use it until they are older will actually work. More likely, we will increase use in the early teens. I was unable to find good evidence that attempts to identify people who are impaired but not high are effective whether they are driving or operating machinery. So, it was unclear how workplaces will be regulated. The Toronto police have already stated that their officers will not be able to use within 28 days of a shift or they will be considered not fit for work. What about physicians and surgeons, pilots, air traffic control, bus drivers, train drivers and the military? What evidence-based rules will govern them, and will these stand up in a court of law? And at a much more prosaic level, how are we going to deal with neighbourhood disputes when your afternoon snooze in the garden is upset by the smell of weed coming legally from next door? We have more questions than answers. But that is the nature of an experiment. We could see a more chilled out Canada but could also see an increase in accidents, cannabis addiction and mental illness. And we could be storing up problems for the future as more young brains are subject to the cognitive impacts of cannabis, but we are not sure. Now that the decision has been made, my hope is that we collect the right data and allow easy access so it can be transparently analyzed. But my main hope is that we all keep an open mind. There is a lot at stake so we need to be prepared to do the right thing as we get more information: whether it is celebrating success or changing course, changing laws or adding more safeguards. Welcome to the experiment. Thanks for taking part. Kwame McKenzie is the CEO of the Wellesley Institute. https://www.thestar.com/news/cannabis/opinion/2018/10/16/legalized-cannabis-an-experiment-with-more-questions-than-answers.html
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