I'll start by questioning your premise that fear of legal sanction reduces youth behaviour around seeking out and using cannabis. During our decades of prohibition when absolutely cannabis had been prohibited, there has always been legal sanction on the table, and we have, as some of the other witnesses mentioned, the highest rates of cannabis use among youth in many countries.
I think the point is this. If we rely on those old approaches and ratchet up the punishment for youth with the expectation that doing so is going to adjust behaviour, that's misguided and not borne out by the evidence.
I didn't say there shouldn't be any sort of intervention among youth who are found.... I agree that if my 12-year-old son, for example, came home and had some cannabis, that would be, as they say, a teachable moment. The point is that we probably need to create teachable moments before that happens, but the idea is that there's a conversation, and often that conversation should be with families who are equipped with evidence and equipped with information to share with their own children. It should be available to schoolteachers, guidance counsellors, and others.
For young people, that sort of intervention may very well be effective. Young people don't necessarily want to have confrontations with adults who are doing things. As the other witnesses have said, however, it's all about the approach. We know that criminalizing youth and telling them “don't do it” is a recipe for the opposite to happen, so it's time to rethink the way we're approaching this dialogue with young people.