Pot-smoking young men had the most to say to Ottawa about marijuana legalization
When it comes to crafting Canada's plans to legalize marijuana, there's one group that seems to have a lot to say: young men who use pot.
That's who responded to the government's online consultation in droves, according to the vice-chair of Canada's marijuana task force, Dr. Mark Ware.
He broke down the numbers as part of his talk at the Vancouver Lift Cannabis Expo earlier this month, noting that particularly when it comes to age, the response was "interesting because this is not typically a group that is heavily engaged politically."
The online consultations were held between June 30 and Aug. 29. Ware told his audience there had been some 28,000 responses. Previously, the task force had pegged the number of responses higher — at 30,000.
According to the information provided by Ware:
- 80 per cent of respondents are cannabis users — either medical or non-medical.
- 73 per cent are male.
- 64 per cent are between 18 and 34 years of age.
- 15 per cent are parents.
- 11 per cent are academics.
- 8 per cent self-identified as activists.
The online survey allowed for up to 1,500-word, essay-style answers on a variety of questions, from where pot should be sold to how medical marijuana should work in a world where pot is legal.
A company has been hired to read and classify the barrage of responses, Ware said.
That summary will be just one way the task force is gathering information for its final report to the federal government. Ware said some 500 policy papers from organizations like the Canadian Medical Association have also been submitted. A spokesperson for the task force later clarified that when accounting for duplication, there were only 350 submissions.
Task force members have been travelling the country, conducting roundtable discussions with experts and visiting medical marijuana production facilities, and travelling south to learn from officials in Colorado and Washington, where marijuana is already legal.
Pot plans
Ware, a professor in family medicine and anesthesia at McGill University who specializes in pain and cannabis, said there were several big questions that the task force continues to wrestle with as it prepares to get its final report to the federal government by the end of November.
Federal officials say the report will be considered as they craft proposed laws to deal with legalized marijuana, which are expected to come before Parliament next spring.
Ware said the task force has heard a wide range of opinions, including some extreme positions on both sides of the legalization debate.
"Remember, we're undoing 100 years of prohibition and these rules, these attitudes, these stigmas have been embedded in our society for a very long time," Ware said. "Going back in and taking this apart and rebuilding something is not trivial, and I think we have to recognize it's not a simple swipe of the pen that can fix all of this."
Where to sell it?
One question that Ware was asked repeatedly was the issue of where legalized marijuana should be sold. He talked about a broad range of options, from compassion clubs to liquor stores.
