Health groups support 19 as minimum age

Ontario government’s plan to regulate pot use hailed as sensible and pragmatic

The provincial government’s plan to make 19 the minimum age for legal marijuana use in Ontario got support Friday from health organizations — including some that were pushing for a higher minimum age.

Ottawa Public Health, for example, suggested 25 was a better minimum age when asked for input by the federal government last year.

Twenty-five is the age at which brains fully mature. A growing body of evidence shows that marijuana use earlier than that can do permanent damage to developing brains and that adolescents are at particular risk because their brains are growing rapidly.

But Friday, Ottawa Public Health and the Canadian Medical Association, both of which had pushed for a higher minimum age for legalization, supported Ontario’s move, saying the plan to regulate sale and use of the drug makes sense and is pragmatic.

Ottawa Public Health applauded the fact that Ontario moved the minimum age up a year from the federal recommendation of 18.

University of Ottawa associate professor Andra Smith, whose research using functional MRIs demonstrated the negative impact of marijuana on teenage brains when it comes to executive function, said 19 makes sense as a minimum age, even though brain development still isn’t complete.

Canadian teens are already using marijuana at among the highest rates in the world. If the minimum age was set at 25, that wouldn’t change, she noted; they would continue to buy it on the black market without the benefit of regulation.

She added that it’s significant that Ontario made the minimum age 19 and not 18 — not only does it line up with alcohol laws, but every year delaying use makes a difference.

“Every year you don’t use (marijuana) is better,” she said.

Benedikt Fischer, a senior scientist with the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, agreed the longer people delay use in teenage years — for alcohol or cannabis — makes a big difference to harm outcomes.

He said 19 is logical as the minimum age for cannabis use.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to say it’s fine to drink when you are 19, but to smoke weed you have to be 25.”

He added that the focus on the impact of cannabis on teen brains often misses the fact that other activities are equally, or more, harmful to teen brains.

“If you were really concerned about brain development you wouldn’t let young people play hockey, you wouldn’t let them drink alcohol or let them get behind the wheel of a car.”

Fischer said it’s positive to see CAMH’s guidelines on low-risk cannabis use adopted by the provincial government.

Among other things, those guidelines recommend starting use later, and that prevention messages should emphasize that “the later cannabis use is initiated, the lower the risks will be for adverse effects on the user’s general health and welfare throughout later life.” epayne@postmedia.com