Photo via Flickr user Heath Alseike
How young is too young for Canadians to legally buy weed? It’s a question your doctor would like to be answered.
A new survey shows docs are utterly split in terms of how old they think the legal marijuana using age should be.
In anticipation of the federal Liberal government legalizing marijuana, the Canadian Medical Association conducted a survey of 788 of its doctors to explore weed usage in the country.
The surveyed doctors were pretty divided on what the age restriction should be, with over 30 percent in favour of 18 or 19, about a quarter saying 21, while a fifth said 25 should be the minimum age.
A key takeaway from the survey is that 87 percent of doctors think there needs to be a lot more medical research into weed’s potential health risks.
According to recent research, Canadians under 25 have the highest rate of marijuana usage among any age group in the country. Some research suggests that marijuana poses a health risk for teenagers, but not for adults.
Critics have been forever urging weed to be banned from children and young people based on fears that it will harm development. Because of this, some health experts have been supporting an age restriction for people under 25. That would be one of the highest age restrictions in the world.
The legal age for pot in Colorado and Washington is 21, which is the same as the US drinking age, but in Canada you can buy booze at 18 or 19, depending on what province you are in.
But as Trudeau continues to work toward the (long-awaited) legalization of weed, it’s still unknown what the age limit will look like.
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