Canadian Cannabis Consumption

"What followed commercialized legalization was a rise in cannabis addition as well as increases in hospital admissions for psychosis, including cases where psychotic disorders occurred alongside cannabis addiction."

"The emergence of a for-profit cannabis industry can result in commercial interests being prioritized over public health, just as we have seen with the alcohol and tobacco industries."

"Increased availability of cannabis products, greater product strength and active marketing of these products can increase the risk of harm."

Tom Freeman, psychologist, University of Bath

Cannabis-related hospitalizations associated with later mortality  Recovery Research Institute

 

The Liberal government of Canada gifted Canadians with MAID -- Medical Assistance in Dying. A program whose original protocol of accessibility was to ensure that patients' ebbing lifeforce was imminent, to spare them further pain and suffering. That soon changed, with guidelines for approval becoming more openly 'benevolent', where applicants eventually could simply decide life wasn't worth living any longer; poverty and lack of adequate medical care prompted some to end their lives. The latest 'improvement' on the guidelines was to include those suffering solely from mental illness; a decision still in abeyance.

 

Living the good life, courtesy of the Liberal government introduced legalized marijuana, and the licensing of cannabis shops throughout the country where the 'weed' and products flavoured with cannabis, some in shapes appealing to children were available. Leading to children being seen at hospital emergency rooms having consumed those appealing tidbits. Government argued that commercializing pot's easy availability would see the end of the illegal black market through regulation. Things haven't exactly worked out that way, with seasoned users still buying on the street at prices more than rivalling commercial outlets.

 

 NSLC's lone exclusivity cannabis-only outlet is seen on Clyde Street in Halifax on Thursday, July 2, 2026. The NSLC also operates cannabis dispensaries inside its alcohol selling stores across Nova Scotia. Photo by Tim Krochak /The Chronicle Herald

 

Now a global study recently published in the Lancet Journal of Psychiatry points out that the widespread commercialization of cannabis in Canada has seen an explosion of hospital visit for psychosis, psychiatric disorders, and addictive use of the product. Elsewhere globally where legalized cannabis is available, a tighter regulatory regime has been instituted not involving widespread commercial availability and as a result other countries where pot has been legalized don't face the pot-related problems that Canada does.

 

Titled International Cannabis Policies and Their Association with Cannabis Use, Cannabis Use Disorder, and Other Psychiatric Disorders, the study represents a global research survey of the policy of legalization of cannabis. As such studies go, this is the most recent research that raises concerns over health effects resulting from Canada's 2018 cannabis legalization and the commercialization that followed. 

 

Seniors are among the fastest-growing age group for using cannabis in Canada. Meanwhile, the number of seniors ending up in emergency departments with cannabis poisoning has also risen sharply since legalization, new research shows. (Travis Dolynny/CBC)

 

Most troubling, society has seen teens and young adults to be the most affected. This, when science also warned that up to age 21, the human brain is still maturing, and exposure to the chemicals in cannabis is harmful to that development. A 2019 study published in Lancet Psychology, advanced the result of regular use of strong cannabis (20 milligrams per gram or higher), increases the potential of a psychosis by up to 1,000 percent among teens and young adults.

 

Data from Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. indicates as of 2023 that close to half of its sales were of cannabis products. Those products having a THC content of 20-25 mg/b (10 times stronger than the old weed), 30 percent of sales represented with 24-30 mg/g and just over 10 percent reflected a potency of over 30 mg/g. Further, according to the 2022 Canadian Cannabis Survey, youth in Nova Scotia (age 16 to 19) saw the highest use of marijuana in the country.

 

Halifax's wastewater tests contained the highest rate of cannabis metabolites per capita of any city in Canada. The Canadian Wastewater Survey testing for drug metabolites in wastewater, tracks consumption trends throughout the country. 

 

As pot becomes more potent and more convenient to purchase, emergency doctors are reporting more cases of cannabis hyperemesis syndrome. Photo by Getty Images

 

Pot: Reservations from the Medical Perspective

"It's interesting that [the results were] so polarized."
"The other interesting thing is that regionally, we didn't notice any significant differences. That level of support, that level of opposition was relatively consistent across the country."
"Those that supported legalization tend to view recreational cannabis as a viable treatment option."
Rahim Shah, vice-president, client services, MD Analytics

"There are other treatments we know well, are well-studied and we know how to give them."
"We don't know that about cannabis."
Dr. Eric Cadesky, president, Doctors of British Columbia

Inside the cannabis greenhouse at Pure Sunfarms in Delta on Aug. 1. Arlen Redekop / PNG

The medical and pharmaceutical marketing research firm, MD Analytics conducted a survey just recently of family physicians in Canada, in anticipation of the looming October 17 deadline for federal legalization of recreational cannabis. And what the survey revealed is that there remains a deep division among the Canadian medical establishment on whether the legalization, on the cusp of becoming reality, with be a positive or a negative change for Canadian health outlooks.

It would appear from the conclusions of the survey that 47 percent of general practitioners in the country firmly oppose legalization, 32 percent of family doctors support it and 21 percent have a neutral attitude. The survey of 235 family doctors by MD Analytics is, on the basis of the results, indication that legalization is not a universally approved move by the federal government, on the part of medical professionals.

The Canadian Medical Association's attitude toward legalization, expressing its concern to the government made it clear both to legislators and the medical community that they view the change in the law with great unease and no little amount of trepidation. The CMA urged the government to adopt a "broad, public-health policy" approach. That sentiment, originally expressed in a 2016 submission to the federal task force on legalization did not criticize the legislation directly, but expressed concern over the results and urged government to be prepared to respond to fallout from the legislation.

In January of this year, the Canadian Medical Association repeated its concern and recommendations to Health Canada on the implementation of Bill C-45. The potential health effects linked to marijuana, and which the CMA outlined to both the government and Health Canada range from marijuana health effects in smoked form; addiction; cardiovascular and pulmonary illness; all the way to mental illness, psychosis in particular.

Dr. Cadesky recommends that the "top priority" of the medical community in response to the reality that many already use cannabis for medical reasons, mandates that patient safety be top of mind. Much of doctors' concerns relate to unknowns involved in constant cannabis use. What doctors do know, however is the possible damage that can be the outcome of cannabis on developing brains, at the same time that they haven't much data on best practice prescribing of the drug.

Doctors, urged family physician Dr. Cadesky, must acquire more knowledge relating to the therapeutic benefits of cannabis, along with its potential harms, inclusive of smoking cannabis and the resulting risks. Dr. Shah points out that his company's survey pinpoints fears raised by the CMA of the drug's abuse and the related expectation that doctors will come across increasing numbers of patients with mental health concerns.

Legalization led 88 percent of the family doctors opposed, to anticipate an increase in patient visits stemming from dependence, compared with 48 percent among doctors who support legalization who also expect that fewer patients will ask for prescriptions while patients begin to experiment with substituting prescription drugs with cannabis under the freedom of availability. In the same token 60 percent of physicians in support of legalization anticipate fewer visits from patients asking for prescription medication for anxiety or stress.

Of that number as well, 43 percent feel there will be a diminished number of patient visits to obtain drugs for chronic pain, as well as 41 percent expecting that fewer patients will be seeking out medications related to panic attacks. In other words, patients will feel freer to 'self-medicate' with the legal availability of recreational marijuana.

Medical marijuana is shown with its packaging label in Toronto. More Canadian physicians oppose legalizing recreational pot than support it, according to a nationwide survey. Graeme Roy / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Legalizing Pot in Canada

Ginette Petitpas Taylor ✔ @GPTaylorMRD

Minister of Health: I want to again thank the @SenateCA for their study of Bill C-45 over the past seven months. We will be accepting most amendments, while respectfully disagreeing with others. Our bill is improved going forward. #C45 #cannabis

2:00 PM - Jun 13, 2018

 

"Every New Year's Eve for 20 years, I'd say goodbye to my wife and go and do ride spot checks with my guys [as Toronto's chief of police]."
"It's not the government's intent to promote the use of this drug [marijuana, soon to become legal in Canada]."
"I don't like it [cannabis]. My father was a cop and I had a great respect for him. Didn't want to let him down. Later when I became a cop, I was glad that I had made that choice because I thought it would be pretty hypocritical to enforce a law I had broken. I have actually never used any illicit drug."
"Organized crime will engage in whatever enterprise makes money for them and they're quite willing to operate outside the law. It's not all motorcycle gangs and street gangs and mafia. But it's all criminal enterprises and therefore unregulated and not subject to any rules. There's lots of different ways to fight organized crime and it's not just enforcement. Sometimes you have to outflank them. We've [Canada's federal Liberal government] now created competition in the market-place -- they've never had competition before."
"I thought my job wasn't just to enforce the law but it was to keep communities safe. The rule of law is meant to act in the public interest but what we saw was pretty strong -- a ridiculously high percentage of our kids using this drug but not being subject to any regulatory control or oversight. And so changing the law [as a Member of Parliament] made sense to me. You don't arrest your way out of these complex problems."
"My experience as a cop was to go into these crappy grow-ops, where the houses were covered in mold and my guys had to wear white space suits; there were hydro bypasses, they were fire hazards, it was a mess."
"The houses were rendered completely uninhabitable. We estimated there were close to 10,000 houses being used that way in the GTA [Greater Toronto Area]. I had two grow-op teams, they were doing about 350 a year and we were just touching the edge. You close one and three more would pop up because it was a lucrative business. The consequences were not nearly sufficient to deter the profit. We were fighting a losing battle."
Member of Parliament Bill Blair, former Toronto Chief of Police

There are many serious concerns about legalized marijuana that the government still hasn't addressed. (Joe Mahoney/Canadian Press)

On the cusp of legalizing cannabis in Canada, Bill Blair -- as the parliamentary secretary to both the Minister of Justice and the Minster of Health -- is the appointed point man overseeing the broad legislation set in motion to legalize marijuana. He has been tasked with ushering the drug's legalization through Parliament and the Senate for approval. And he has been the contact person between government and the pot-producing industry. As for his credibility and the respect with which he is held by both, it owes much to his lengthy time in law enforcement and first-hand knowledge of the illegal status of the drug.

His personal aversion to any kind of drug use is fairly well known, giving his point of view on pot's legalization greater clout. He speaks from the perspective of a long-time police chief in a major North American metropolis attempting to deal with the issue of illegal drugs, their proliferation and the crimes associated with their production and distribution adding to his conclusion through experience that overall prohibition was "failing on every front". As a practical, intelligent man he supports the obvious; that if something vital to the well-being of society as a whole isn't working, a new tack is called for.

An opportunity presented itself with the emergence of legalizing marijuana production, distribution and use for medical purposes. Medical marijuana supply was legalized in Canada in 2013, and as then-police chief, Blair had the opportunity to look at the facilities close up and personal, to discover that these new 'pharmaceutical factories' rivalled their conventional drug-producing counterparts for cleanliness, cutting-edge technology and security. "It shows there's a way this can be done right. This is a better way", he emphasized.

Measuring impairment on the road will be left to officers' judgments. (File Photo/CBC)

 

As a practical man he knows there are no guarantees, only optimism that perhaps a different way of doing things will result in a far better outcome than currently exists. Legalization could conceivably fail, just as prohibition has. An example is that in Colorado, one of four American states where pot is now legal, the black market still thrives. Mr. Blair has no expectation that legalizing pot will overnight kill the black market. Again, looking to Colorado, four years on from its legalization around 70 percent of the market is claimed by legal pot with much of the illicit stuff sent out of state where it remains illegal.

"Smoking is probably the least healthy way to do this [edible marijuana has not yet got a green light]. Philosophically, we're on the side of the healthier choice but there's a lot of risk in edibles. If you're going to allow them,  you've got to regulate them properly so people know what they are consuming, what the dosage is. Cannabis smoke metabolizes differently than cannabis when it's ingested. You don't want people having one biscuit and 30 minutes later having another because the first hasn't had any effect, then 30 minutes later taking out the tray. Two hours later they're not doing well at all."

Still from video: Global News