Too young for Cannabis? Choice of minimum legal age for legalized non-medical Cannabis in Canada.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Choice of minimum legal age (MLA) for cannabis use is a critical and contentious issue in legalization of non-medical cannabis. In Canada where non-medical cannabis was recently legalized in October 2018, the federal government recommended age 18, the medical community argued for 21 or even 25, while public consultations led most Canadian provinces to adopt age 19. However, no research has compared later life outcomes of first using cannabis at these different ages to assess their merits as MLAs. METHODS:We used doubly robust regression techniques and data from nationally representative Canadian surveys to compare educational attainment, cigarette smoking, self-reported general and mental health associated with different ages of first cannabis use. RESULTS:We found different MLA

SUBMITTER: Nguyen HV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7222435 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature