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School kid cannabis use declines on Vancouver Island

Published on December 20, 2024 by David Wylie

Cannabis use among school kids on Vancouver Island

Cannabis use is declining among kids in school on Vancouver Island, a report from Island Health shows.

“In 2023, fewer youth reported that they had ever used cannabis compared to 2018 (28% vs. 32%). Over the past 20 years, the proportion of youth who reported ever using cannabis has decreased by 1.6 times,” said the report from Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Réka Gustafson.

The report, Challenge and Change: A Public Health Response to our Perplexing Relationship with Psychoactive Substances, reviews consumption and health outcome data for Vancouver Island residents related to use of substances such as tobacco, alcohol, illegally-manufactured opioids and cannabis.

The majority of respondents (approximately 70%) said they had never used cannabis while approximately 7% reported they use it daily.

Fifty per cent of young adults used cannabis in the past 12 months, the report said, and 28% of youth in school reported having tried cannabis.

Cannabis use decreases with age, with 95% of those 80 and over reporting they hadn’t used in the past year.

Those in the 18–29 age group used cannabis most often, with 12% reporting daily use.

Nearly three quarters of females (74%) had not used cannabis in the past 12 months, compared to approximately two thirds of males (65%).

Source: Island Health

Cannabis use increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, the report found. The highest proportion of respondents who reported increased use were in the 18-29 age group (24%), followed by the 30-39 and 40-49 age groups (15% and 13%).

Hospital admissions related to cannabis are substantially lower than hospital admissions related to alcohol, opioids, stimulants, or tobacco, the report said.

However, cannabis-related admissions have doubled over the past 10 years — although the report says it is not known if this increase is due to an actual change in hospital admissions or a greater willingness to disclose cannabis use after legalization, or both

In 2023, the rate of cannabis-related hospital admissions was highest in the 19-29 age group.

Hospital admissions decreased between 2018 and 2019, but rose during the pandemic. The rate of cannabis-related hospital admissions has since decreased but is not yet back to pre-pandemic levels.

The rate of cannabis-related hospital admissions for males was 1.7 times the rate for females in 2023.

Report highlights on other topics:

— Tobacco and alcohol consumption on Vancouver Island is higher than in the rest of British Columbia. Tobacco remains the top cause of substance use-related premature death. The smoking rate in Island Health is well above the target of 5% by 2035 set by Canada’s Tobacco Strategy

— Alcohol is the leading cause of substance-related hospital admissions.

— Unregulated drug poisonings are the top cause of death in people aged 19-59.