U of C ranked fourth-last in national marijuana use survey

By Henry Ma, March 16 2018 —

According to a Maclean’s survey on marijuana use by post-secondary students, the University of Calgary is ranked fourth-last nationally. Over 22,000 students responded to the survey. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents said they never smoke pot, while only a small percentage reported being weekly or daily users.

Overall, 63 per cent of survey respondents said they’ve never used cannabis. Eleven per cent said they use cannabis once a year and two per cent reported daily use. From the U of C, only one per cent of survey respondents reported daily use of cannabis.

The Canadian government is looking to legalize marijuana this upcoming summer while allowing the provinces to come up with their own framework as the federal government plans to set the minimum age for marijuana use at age 18.

Faculty of Science student Abhijeet Jassal said there are positive and negative aspects to using marijuana.

“Anxiety is pretty high among university students, so marijuana could help with some people with that,” he said. “At the same time, you could still abuse it. It’s all about how you use it.”

At the U of C, a cannabis working group composed of various members of campus is currently tasked with coming up with on-campus regulations regarding cannabis use. A draft of policies regarding cannabis use on campus was presented to the Students’ Legislative Council on March 6. Current regulations include marked areas aligned with federal regulations for cannabis use and non-academic misconduct for failing to abide by university rules.

The new cannabis proposal for the U of C is on track to be approved this summer.