Winnipeg School Division says it's ready for legal pot, but former student thinks otherwise

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The Winnipeg School Division says it is prepared for legal marijuana, but a former Kelvin High School student who says daily marijuana use delayed him as a student worries changes to pot laws will mean even more young people will become exposed to cannabis.

The federal Liberals tabled legislation Thursday that will legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults over 18. The government says the new legislation aims to protect children from marijuana.

While the Liberal bill does not contain penalties for young people caught with less than five grams of marijuana, it increases penalties for giving or selling cannabis to minors — dealers or retailers could face up to 14 years in jail for the crime.

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Winnipeg School Division chair Sherri Rollins said her board is ready for legal pot.

The school board's existing rules prohibit smoking or vaporizing any drug on school property and, Rollins said, protect students and staff from being exposed to pot.

"We're aware, as we always have been, that utilization between 15 and 25 year olds in Canada is something we're alert to," said Rollins. "Students don't get to bring illegal substances to school or to school property."

In 2015, Statistics Canada found that 21 per cent of teens aged 15 to 19 consume marijuana, while 30 per cent of young adults between 20 to 24 use the drug.

Rules similar to those Rollins points to were in place when Donald Comack Jr., now 28, was a student at Kelvin High School.

He says he developed a marijuana dependency in Grade 9, when he said he started smoking to fit in with other students. He doesn't think much has changed at his alma mater.

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"Go drive around Kelvin High School at lunch hour, go in the back lanes," he said. "There'd be kids in there smoking pot for sure … I don't see how just miraculously everyone stopped smoking pot."

Comack, who is now in recovery, said marijuana is a "lot more powerful" than many think. He says daily use caused him to develop short-term memory loss that his doctor says could last years, even while he stays sober.

He is convinced that when marijuana is legal it will only become more available to young people. He said marijuana is already easier for a young person to purchase than beer.

"It's going to be everyone smoking pot. It's going to be widely accepted."

Canadians think pot is benign, says doctor

Dr. Ginette Poulin, a physician and medical director with the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, said marijuana provides many addicts with their first high, potentially because they don't see it as terribly risky or dangerous.

Canadian society seems to see marijuana use as "benign," but the drug can affect cognition and concentration, reduce memory, and result in poor performance in school, Poulin says.

"We know in the research, the younger someone starts consuming marijuana the more difficulties or challenges that causes for brain development," she said. Human brains do not finish development until age 25.

Poulin hopes the province considers this when it sets the legal age for purchasing pot. The federal government has set 18 as a minimum age, but provinces are free to set an older age if they so choose.

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Pot use at school an open secret

Comack remembers marijuana use on school property, or very close to it, was an open secret.

"A lot of teachers knew about it," he said. "I'm not sure they knew what to do … It's not something I would blame them for."

If he could warn high school students today, he would tell them about how daily marijuana use set him years behind some of his peers.

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He's still working on his own recovery from his marijuana dependency.

"It gets better a little bit every day," he said. "After smoking pot for 10 years, this is the first time in my life since the summer of Grade 8 that I've been actually sober for three-and-a-half months."

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