In advance of marijuana legalization in Canada, it’s important to hear how Canadians evaluate the health impact of marijuana consumption.

Yet the national discussion around marijuana today is all about who is going to make the most money from the momentum toward legalization: Which provinces, cities, bankers, small cap stocks, or hedge funds will generate the most “alpha”?

Canadians have learned a lot about how to make money off the legalization of marijuana. In April 2016, Deloitte Canada partnered with RIWI Corp. to conduct an assessment of the Canadian recreational marijuana market; the results projected a $23 billion market.

Judging by the valuations of the largest cannabis companies, Canadians believe the most bullish of Bay Street analysts.

Yet do they believe the guidance of our government when it comes to addiction?

The legalization of recreational marijuana was always framed first in this country not as an economic issue, but as a public health benefit. The prime minister argues passionately that legalization will reduce youth and adult access to high-potency marijuana distributed by criminal gangs in a manner that nourishes addiction.

A fundamental part of any new public health program in addictions is measuring baseline awareness prior to the initiative. After legalization, we should therefore be able to assess whether Canadians are more, or less, informed about addiction.

Why does this matter? The more people understand the ill effects of addiction to any addictive substance, the more we can blunt the sting of stigma associated with addiction and the faster people who suffer from addiction will seek out help.

So: Just how well do Canadians believe what Health Canada has told them since 2016 about the addictions profile of marijuana?

RIWI Corp. just completed a study funded by ClearTheAirNow.org on Canadians’ awareness of the health effects of marijuana. We engaged 1,100 random, anonymous Canadian participants. The questions asked in the survey were based on 2016 Health Canada warnings regarding marijuana:

1. Can long-term use lead to psychological dependence or addiction? Health Canada says yes; 29 per cent of the participants replied “no” and 23 per cent didn’t know.

2. Health Canada reports that long-term use of marijuana may trigger or aggravate serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, psychosis, anxiety, depression or bipolar disorder, while 36 per cent of survey participants said it aids mental health and 22 per cent said it had no impact on mental health.

3. Health Canada states marijuana can cause panic, paranoid thoughts, and hallucinations; 38 per cent of participants believe this to be false information.

4. Health Canada cautions sternly against smoking or vaporizing cannabis in the presence of children; 15 per cent of survey respondents thought it was safe to do so and 11 per cent said they didn’t know.

5. Health Canada further cautions against marijuana use during pregnancy, planning to get pregnant, and breastfeeding. Nevertheless, 16 per cent of respondents felt it was safe and 17 per cent didn’t know. While 82 per cent agreed that smoking cigarettes while pregnant was harmful, a smaller per cent (67 per cent) said the same about marijuana.

6. As more and more scientific information accumulates that drug abuse prior to parenthood in fathers as well as in mothers is potentially a serious problem, Health Canada warns that marijuana should not be used if you are a man who wishes to start a family, because long-term use can decrease sperm count, concentration and motility and increase abnormal sperm morphology. But 51 per cent of survey participants believed that marijuana posed no risk to a man’s fertility.

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7. Health Canada warns us about driving risks since cannabis impairs concentration, decision-making, reaction time, and coordination, while 85 per cent of respondents agreed that alcohol impaired driving, only 71 per cent thought this was true for marijuana.

It will be essential to monitor Canadians’ understanding of addiction after pot legalization. If the legalization of marijuana is primarily about public health, then we should allocate sufficient funds to monitor outcomes using third-party scientific assessment of key indicators, such as the changing average age of onset of first usage of marijuana; rising or falling multi-drug usage among those who do fall into addiction; and, critically, the degree to which Canadians understand the ravages of addiction in all its forms, no matter the originating addictive substance.