Despite cannabis legalization, recreational drug use by youths has dropped to its lowest level in 25 years.
"Fewer youths are using, but those that do are more likely to be using regularly," explained Annie Smith, McCreary Centre Society's executive director, in a webinar presentation.
These numbers come from a B.C. adolescent health report released in 2024. The survey was conducted by the McCreary Centre Society, with funding from the B.C. government, and was completed by approximately 38,500 youths between 12-19 in 59 of B.C鈥檚 60 school districts.
The report found that 22 per cent of B.C. youths had tried cannabis, down from 25-26 per cent over the past decade, and down from 41 per cent in the 1990s.
The document is the third B.C. adolescent health report to consider cannabis use among youths in B.C., and is the first to use data collected since non-medical cannabis use was legalized for adults in Canada in 2018. The study specifically looked at the age range of 12-18, not old enough to legally purchase cannabis.
"It's young people who have been working, particularly those who are working 20 or more hours a week, if they're in a dating relationship, if they been through a range of adverse experiences, if they're struggling with their mental health 鈥� those young people are more likely to be using cannabis more regularly," Smith said.
She suggested several reasons why working youths are more likely to smoke cannabis, citing survey responses. These included access to disposable income, and perception of the drug as a treat and way to relax within a limited leisure window.
(Percentage of B.C. youths who reported having tried cannabis from 1998-2023. (McCreary Centre Society image)
Despite this decline, there was an increase in consumers using it regularly, with 61 per cent of cannabis users having used it in the past month. Most respondents used cannabis one or two times in the past month; however, users smoking 20 or more days in the past month rose from 10 per cent to 15 per cent and daily users increased from six to nine per cent.
"Trying cannabis is a very normative party of our adolescence, but 鈥� it's when young people go onto using it regularly that we start to see problems," Smith said.
There was also an increase in B.C. girls trying cannabis at age 14 or younger, while rates for boys and non-binary youths remained stable. Girls were also more likely to report their use was at a point where they needed help.
"We actually see overall, this time around 鈥� this is the first time that girls have been more likely than boys to have tried cannabis," she explained. "Back in the early '90s there used to be a huge gender gap the other way with boys much more likely to have used cannabis. That gap closed over time and now we have girls more likely than boys to be using."
Another shift included the method in which they consume the drug. Youths who used cannabis were less likely to have smoked it than five years prior, dropping from 88 per cent to 73 per cent, and more likely to eat it, climbing from 16 per cent to 23 per cent.
Despite it being illegal for that age range to purchase cannabis from a retail business, 10 per cent of B.C. youths reported having bought cannabis at a store and three per cent reported purchasing it online the last time they used it.
