Anti-smoking advocates raise alarm over legal marijuana
Supporter says edible products will mitigate concerns in the long run
The prospect of legal marijuana in 2018 is raising alarm among antismoking advocates, while some public health experts are hopeful legalization will prove to be a greater benefit than risk.
In April, the federal Liberal government unveiled a plan to legalize recreational pot for those over 18 by July of next year.
Les Hagen, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said he doesn’t oppose legalization but believes public health is taking a back seat to commercial and political interests as the Trudeau government speeds toward legal weed.
A key worry is that marijuana will “renormalize” smoking in public after decades of efforts to curtail tobacco use.
“We cannot allow marijuana legalization to threaten this enormous public health achievement,” Hagen said in a recent submission to the City of Edmonton.
In an interview, Hagen said cannabis legalization could have a major effect on tobacco use, pointing to an Ontario study that suggests close to one-third of marijuana smokers mix in tobacco.
“Which substance are you more likely to get addicted to, which one is more likely to kill you? It’s not the cannabis. So that’s a huge concern,” said Hagen, who wants Edmonton and Calgary to ensure their city smoking bylaws cover marijuana.
The Canadian Cancer Society does not have an official position on legalization but is concerned that long-term marijuana smoking could increase an individual’s risk of cancer, though the research is patchy compared with tobacco.
Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst with the society, said marijuana smoke contains many of the same carcinogens as tobacco smoke, though consumption is generally considerably lower.
He said it’s incumbent for provinces to ensure that existing restrictions on smoking apply to marijuana.
Alberta has yet to proclaim sections of the Tobacco Reduction Amendment Act of 2013 that would accomplish that restriction, said Cunningham.
“That’s just a quick switch to be flipped to implement that in Alberta,” he said.
HealthMinisterSarahHoffman’s office said in a statement that the government was still reviewing the federal legislation to determine its implications on provincial law, and the province needed to do further consultations before bringing its tobacco bill into force.
“We are, of course, considering the health impacts as health and safety of Albertans is our top priority,” said Hoffman’s press secretary, Timothy Wilson.
Officials from the provincial health ministry and Alberta Health Services declined to comment for this story.
The federal legalization scheme will leave significant decisions to the province, including how cannabis will be distributed. The federal bill also sets a minimum age for users at 18 — currently the legal drinking and smoking age in Alberta — but provinces can choose to implement higher age limits.
The Cancer Society’s Cunningham said there is a significant push by advocacy groups to raise the legal smoking age for both marijuana and tobacco to 21, a limit adopted in many American jurisdictions.
The Canadian Medical Association has recommended a nationwide ban on pot use for those under the age of 21, and restrictions on the quantity and potency for people under 25. Beyond other potential health effects from marijuana use, the physicians group said marijuana can affect brain development in youth that is not complete until age 25.
But Rebecca Haines-Saah, assistant professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Cumming School of Medicine, said a legal age of 18 makes sense because people in the 18 to 24 demographic are the greatest users of cannabis.
Forcing those users to turn to an illegal source makes no sense, especially given Ottawa’s stated commitment to public safety and desire to wipe out the illicit marijuana trade, she said.
The World Health Organization pegs Canada as having the highest rate of use of marijuana among youth in the developed world, at an estimated 30 per cent.
Haines-Saah, main organizer of a U of C forum on cannabis legalization and public health on Friday, said the experience in jurisdictions such as Colorado and Washington where weed has been legalized suggest it’s likely there will not be an increased prevalence of use in either youth or adults.
She said the use of edible cannabis products will likely mitigate the concerns around smoking in the long run, though the federal government won’t have regulations around edibles in place when initial legalization occurs next year.
But while Haines-Saah has no objection to consumption of marijuana on a recreational or medical basis, she acknowledged there are potential issues around marijuana as a legal product.
“I’m really concerned a freemarket model might dominate the space and that … we start promoting cannabis as a lifestyle to be used for every activity and every mood,” she said.
Overall though, she believes Ottawa is taking the right approach by legalizing while ensuring tight regulation.
“We absolutely have evidence that prohibition has failed as a policy,” she said.
Which substance are you more likely to get addicted to, which one is more likely to kill you? It’s not the cannabis. So that’s a huge concern.