Monitoring Patterns of Cannabis Use and Binge Drinking Among Canadian Youth Age 15 to 24 Years

Youth are a focus population of Canada=s National Anti-Drug Strategy. In order for public health officials to adequately plan prevention strategies relating to youth cannabis use and binge drinking, a solid knowledge base must be utilized to inform such decisions. Towards this end, data from the Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey were used to examine cannabis use and binge drinking (5+ drinks/occasion) among Canadian youth (15-24 years). Overall, 33% of Canadian youth used cannabis in the past year (approximately 1,374,000 youth). Of past year cannabis users, 55% were male and 50% were 15-19 years of age. Furthermore, age of initiation differed depending on frequency of use over the past 3 months. Daily users started using cannabis earlier (mean=14.2 years) than those who did not use in the past 3 months (mean=16.2 years) and those who used cannabis less than monthly (mean=15.3 years). Preliminary analyses also indicate that current tobacco smokers are roughly 9 times more likely to have used cannabis in the past year than are non-smoking youth (OR=8.99, 95%CI 5.48-14.75). Among youth, 33% reported having 5+ drinks/occasion once a month or more (approximately 1,369,000 youth). Of these youth, 67% were male and 51% were 20-24 years of age. These youth were 6 times more likely to have used cannabis in the past year (OR=6.24, 95%CI 3.84-10.13). In addition, youth who reported binge drinking once a month or more were 6 times more likely to report at least one alcohol-related harm in the past year (OR=6.05, 95%CI 3.26-11.23).