...and in ‘legal’ Canada, youth are still abusing drug

THE number of young people in Canada using cannabis has not changed since the country legalised the drug in October, despite officials saying the law would ‘keep marijuana out of the hands of children and youth’.

Canada prime minister Justin Trudeau had promised that the policy would ‘protect young Canadians’. He pledged that an end to the chaotic ‘war on drugs’ would make it easier to control the substance.

But as calls grow for Britain to follow Canada’s lead and legalise cannabis, figures suggest the legislation is not stopping young people from using the drug. Professor Gabriella Gobbi, of McGill University in Canada, said: ‘Just three days ago we had the first data from Statistics Canada.

‘It shows adolescents in Canada continue to smoke – and in Quebec we have had an increase of 10 per cent of adolescents that smoke. Legalisation is not enough to prevent young children and adolescents from smoking if we don’t have something else – prevention, education.’ The figures showed that 27 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 24 – more than any other age group – used cannabis in the last three months of 201 .

Professor Andrea Cipriani, of Oxford University, said: ‘One of the arguments in favour of legalisation is to reduce the number of young people who use cannabis. ‘This is not happening.’ Data from Colorado, which legalised cannabis in 2013, shows use of the drug is the single most common reason for school expulsions. Use among high school students in the state barely changed – from 19.7 per cent in 2013 to 19.4 per cent in 2017.

The new laws in Canada gave adults the green light to use cannabis as freely as they use alcohol.

But Mr Trudeau said harsh penalties for adults caught selling to minors would stop use among under-19s.

‘We have a war on drugs that isn’t working,’ he said.

‘We’re having kids access pot easier than they access alcohol. We need to realise prohibition just isn’t working.’