Recent trends in cannabis use in Canada

Abstract

This paper reviews surveys of cannabis use in Canada carried out in the last decade and presents the findings of a nation-wide adult survey carried out in January, 1978. The main findings of the latter survey were as follows: 1. (1) 17.2% of the sample reported that they has used marihuana and/or hashish at some time in their lives; 2. (2) 9.7% reported that they had used cannabis in the past 12 months; 3. (3) 3.6% reported that they had used cannabis more than once a week in the past 30 days; 4. (4) The period 1970–1973 was most often reported as the time of initiation of cannabis use, followed by the period 1974–1977. 5. (5) There were significant differences between regional and social groups in reported patterns of cannabis use. Specifically: • — Residents of British Columbia, young people, males, labourers, persons whose mother tongue was English, residents of larger communities and those with high-school or university education were more likely to report that they had “ever used” marihuana; • — The same patterns held for use of cannabis in the “past 12 months”, with the exception of education which did not show significant differences; • — The same patterns as noted for use of cannabis in the past 12 months also held for use “more than once weekly” in the past 30 days with the exception that there were no significant differences between residents of various sized communities or those with different mother tongues. It was concluded that there has been an increase in cannabis use in Canada over the past decade, the exact magnitude of which is unknown and probably unknowable given limitations of previous research. On the other hand, the data suggest that the rate of increase may have slowed in the past few years.