Ontario’s pot plan still neglects public health

Province ignoring advice of its physicians, notes Dr. Gail Beck.

Friday’s announcement from Queen’s Park on Ontario’s approach to legal marijuana did not properly address the need for a robust public-health approach to be the foundation upon which cannabis and cannabis products are made available to the public.

As a psychiatrist in Ontario who sees the impact of cannabis on young people and their families every day, there were not enough specifics about how the province plans to educate the public, and especially youth, on the risks of cannabis use.

The evidence of the impact of cannabis dependence is well-documented and the research with respect to the impact of regular cannabis use on the developing brain is well-supported by medical research.

The brain continues to develop until age 25 and there is significant evidence that cannabis use interferes with brain development. While some have advocated for the minimum age to purchase marijuana to be 25, young Canadians are already using twice as much marijuana as any other age group in Canada.

Young Canadians also have a higher rate of cannabis use than youth in any other G8 country. With use being this high (20 per cent of Canadians aged 16 to 24), it is more realistic to focus on reducing cannabis use to the extent that is possible. The Canadian Medical Association recommended setting a national standard where minimum legal age for purchasing marijuana would be 21, but with restricted strength and purchasing limits until age 25. These were also the recommendations of the Canadian Psychiatric Association. The Ontario government has clearly decided against following the advice of Canada’s doctors and psychiatrists, which gives cause for concern.

Most clinicians were hoping to hear from Health Minister Eric Hoskins that there would be a plan to evaluate the extent to which legal marijuana has an impact clinically. We know cannabis has an impact on mental health. Why did we not hear how the province plans to prevent the worst of that impact?

The province has access to public-health approaches that are known to be effective, such as the SmokeFree Ontario quit-smoking campaign, which shows how skilled the health ministry can be at developing public health campaigns. When we already know that young Ontarians are using cannabis at such a high rate when it’s illegal, do we not want to know how the government plans to prevent that prevalence of use from increasing?

Those of us who see the impact of marijuana overuse and dependence have faced the legalization of marijuana with a strong call for a public-health focus. In fact, from our experience of alcohol overuse and dependence, we know that regulation may well be a benefit.

However, our concern is mental health and its heartbreaking effects. Addressing the results of cannabis use in clinical settings, with struggling patients and their families, we were hoping to see the government’s publichealth plan today. Dr. Gail Beck is the clinical director of the Youth Psychiatry Program at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.