Most Canadian adults say 18 too young to buy, use weed: poll By: Solomon Israel Posted: 7:00 PM CST Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018

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This article was published 14/11/2018 (2488 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nearly three out of four adult Canadians feel the federal minimum age for buying and using cannabis — 18 years old — should be increased, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Angus Reid Institute.

Twenty-seven per cent of respondents believed 18 was the right minimum age for accessing cannabis, while 21 per cent felt 19 years old would be appropriate. Twenty-six per cent would prefer setting the minimum age at 21 years old and roughly 20 per cent of respondents felt the minimum age should be at least 25.

Ottawa’s cannabis legalization law, which took effect Oct. 17, allows provincial and territorial governments to raise the age for buying and using marijuana beyond 18. Almost every jurisdiction in Canada has done so, setting the minimum age for cannabis use at 19; only Alberta and Quebec kept the minimum age at 18.

"I think what we find is, there isn’t exactly consensus over what the age should be," said Angus Reid Institute executive director Shachi Kurl, who pointed out big regional differences in the poll’s results.

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"Albertans, very much in that Alberta mindset, (are) of the view that if you should be able to consume liquor at 18, you should be able to consume pot at 18," she said. Forty-six per cent of Albertans supported keeping the age at 18, compared to 26 per cent who favoured the age of 21.

In Quebec, though, the provincial minimum age of 18 was supported by a smaller proportion of respondents, at 36 per cent. A nearly equal number, 34 per cent, would like to raise the age to 21.

Manitoba is the only place in Canada where the minimum age for using alcohol (18) doesn’t match the minimum age for cannabis (19).

However, only 17 per cent of Manitobans surveyed by Angus Reid felt the minimum age of 19 was appropriate. A plurality of Manitobans — 39 per cent — said the province’s minimum age should be lowered to 18. Eighteen per cent of Manitobans preferred the age of 21, and a combined 14 per cent felt the minimum age for cannabis should be set at 25 or older.

"Of all the jurisdictions where the age is set at a minimum age of 19, nowhere else in the country do you see more people who wish it were at 18," said Kurl.

The mismatch between Manitoba’s ages for using cannabis and alcohol "may well have a lot to do with it," she added.

Preferences for a higher or lower age of legal cannabis access aligned predictably with age and political affiliation in the poll.

Sixty-nine per cent of men and 57 per cent of women between the ages of 18 and 34 felt the minimum age to use marijuana should be between 18 and 20. Respondents who voted Conservative in the last federal election were more likely to call for a higher minimum age for cannabis than those who voted Liberal or NDP.

Ottawa’s choice to set the minimum age for cannabis use at 18 was in line with recommendations from the federal government’s expert task force on legalization.

Although the task force recognized research suggesting cannabis use by younger people may have detrimental effects on brain development, its 2016 report to the federal government found that "current science is not definitive on a safe age for cannabis use."

Since people under the age of 25 are "most likely to consume cannabis and to be charged with a possession offence," the task force reasoned, prohibiting possession of cannabis by people under that age could cause "a range of unintended consequences, such as leading those consumers to continue to purchase cannabis on the illicit market."

The Angus Reid Institute polled 1,500 members of its online Angus Reid Forum. If the poll had been based on random sampling, it would have a 2.5 per cent margin of error, 19 times out of 20.

solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca  @sol_israel