Session: Health Risks and Health Promotion in the Context of Cannabis Legalization in Canada (Society for Prevention Research 26th Annual Meeting)

Canadian adolescents and young adults are the youngest and most frequent users of cannabis in the developed world. According to a UNICEF survey (2013), 28% of 11- to 15-year-old Canadians reported marijuana use in the last year, the highest of all countries surveyed. In addition, Canadian youth mistakenly believe that cannabis use is generally low risk with few serious consequences. However, cannabis use is associated with a myriad of negative consequences for youth including injuries and accidents, cognitive difficulties such as memory loss, mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, and dependency. Legalization of recreational cannabis use in Canada is fast approaching (anticipated July 2018); however, many questions remain; How much and in what ways are young people already using cannabis? What are the long-term health and social consequences of these use patterns? How do we promote health for youth in the context of legalization? The goal of this symposium is to present a series of works from researchers across Canada that begins to answer these questions and reflects on how this research is informing prevention efforts.

The first paper presents data from the Victoria Healthy Youth Survey, a 10-year longitudinal prospective study of Canadian youth ages 12-29 and identifies five different patterns of marijuana use among Canadian youth. This study discusses these use patterns and examines how these patterns are related to various educational and occupational outcomes in young adulthood.

The second paper presents national data from the Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug Use Survey and examines high school student’s perceptions of harm from cannabis and the association with cannabis-related driving behaviors (driving and as a passenger). This work highlights the strong role played by youth perceptions of cannabis-related harms in shaping driving-related behaviours.

The third paper focuses on reflecting how we promote youth wellbeing in the contexts of these risks. This talk will discuss different approaches to health education in the context of cannabis and present on the development and evaluation of professional learning resources and tools that are currently being tested in classroom settings.

After the presentations, the discussant will make summary statements and moderate a discussion between the presenters and the symposium attendees. We expect to examine how the Canadian research is aligned and/or misaligned with what has been observed among US studies and discuss some of the unique contextual challenges that will be faced by prevention and public health experts in Canada.