MDs want to ban cannabis for those younger than 21

OTTAWA— Canada’s doctors are calling for strict limits on legalized pot smoking, saying the minimum age should be 21.

And amounts and potency of products sold to those under 25 should be tightly controlled, the Star has learned.

In a brief for a federal task force studying the legalization of marijuana, the Canadian Medical Association does not support or oppose legalization, but makes a range of goslow recommendations.

It urges more be spent on research, medical and social services for addictions treatment, a ban on home cultivation, a ban on smoking non-medical marijuana in public places and pilot projects before a full national rollout of legalized marijuana.

Several of its concerns will find high-profile support from Canada’s police chiefs.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is recommending in a private submission to the task force a uniform minimum legal pot-smoking age, leaving the age designation to health professionals.

The police chiefs also oppose home cultivation and say a lot more money needs to be spent on training officers and developing an efficient and effective roadside drug-impairment detection device.

The police chiefs’ submission, like the CMA’s, raises red flags for the government as it inches closer to overhauling Canada’s drug laws.

The CMA says “ideally” the minimum pot-smoking age should be 25. It says scientific evidence shows the brain is still developing up to and beyond 25 years.

But the physicians’ association acknowledges that is likely unrealistic.

Dr. Jeff Blackmer, who headed the CMA’s policy formulation group, said in an interview the experience of other jurisdictions that have loosened pot laws and “the reality in terms of the implementation of this type of regime” led the doctors to settle on the age of 21.

“It’s trying to find that balance between what the scientific evidence says and what is sort of the art of the possible,” he said.

Even now, as marijuana use remains illegal in Canada, its use among youth aged 15 to 24 is double that of the general population, the CMA says.

Under a legalized system, those aged 25 and older are likely to share with their underage friends and so the physicians’ group is calling for regulations that would mandate lower maximum purchase levels and lower THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient) levels in product sold to those under 25.

Blackmer said public-health concerns must be at the heart of any new legal regime because data shows 9 per cent of marijuana smokers will go on to develop a dependence at some point — a figure that rises to 17 per cent when an individual starts using in adolescence.

The police chiefs association won’t release its submission over concerns some content would give organized crime a blueprint to work around.

But in an exclusive interview with the Star, Gatineau Police Chief Mario Harel, CACP president, said a big concern for police leaders is law enforcement’s “capacity” to deal with drug-impaired driving.

“We have to be frank, it’s actually a problem,” said Harel.

He said police anticipate a “big surcharge of work” when a new regime is in place.