According to a journal report released in Preventive Medicine, at least 10 percent of grade-school adolescents in Ontario had driven while under the influence of cannabis over a span of just one year.
As conducted by experts at the University of Ottawa, the study involved more than 1,000 students arising from the 2017 Ontario Student Health and Drug Use Survey, the vast majority of which had an age of about 16.
As part of the study, the participants were asked about drug use, particularly cannabis use, and their driving behaviors.
“This work reveals that Ontario adolescents perceive cannabis to be less risky than alcohol, and this perception affects other risky behaviours,” said one main researcher of the study.
“The reason this is important is that it suggests that educating adolescents about the risks of cannabis use may be effective in reducing the dangerous practice of driving after cannabis use.”
The study concluded: “There are various correlates of driving under the influence of cannabis, including attitudes related to cannabis which may be amenable to intervention. Future efforts should continue to monitor the prevalence of cannabis-impaired driving in this population and determine whether changes in students’ attitudes surrounding cannabis are linked to behavioural changes.”
