Thank you.
I'm not sure if you're aware of a study from 2011 conducted by the Canadian alcohol and drug use monitoring group. It's a survey they ran, and it showed that in the last year.... They measured how many folks actually used marijuana. In 2004, 14% of the general population—they're extrapolating—had used marijuana at some point in the previous year, but by 2011 it was down to 9.1%. That's a statistically significant decrease. It's also a very sizable decrease. It seems as though it was much more popular in 2004 but was very much diminishing in popularity by 2011.
I guess we're somewhat concerned that all of a sudden this has become a political football, and people are trying to throw this out on the front pages and so on, when in fact there isn't this big clamouring for legalization or the ability to sell marijuana at every corner store. I'm particularly concerned about what the impact would be on the developing mind, about what those health consequences are.
This is actually our last day of testimony for this study. What we're struggling to find is independent scientific evidence that really speaks to the effects and the impact on individuals' health of using recreational marijuana, especially on developing minds. That study said that the overall population is really not using marijuana quite so much, but it did find, however, that youth really are using marijuana, and some of the numbers are really, really high. In the past year, cannabis use by youth was 21.6%, or three times higher than that of adults.
I guess the concern is that if you were to make marijuana readily available at variety stores and simply say that you needed to be a certain age in order to purchase it, similar to cigarettes.... I think we could all say realistically that we've seen teenagers smoking cigarettes, so somehow they have them in their possession. Have you undertaken any research on young participants, 13-, 14-, or 15-year-olds, to see what the health consequences are of recreational marijuana usage, or are you aware of any studies or science on this issue?