‘Hands up’: Advocating for Canada’s children and youth regarding cannabis

Cannabis and Canadian youth: evidence, not ideology.

A recent United Nations Children’s Fund study on the well-being of children1 found that Canadian adolescents (aged 11 to 15 years) have the highest rate of cannabis use among the 29 advanced economies of the world; an estimated 28% had used cannabis at least once in the past year. The 2011 Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey, which surveyed older youth, found slightly lower rates of...

Cannabis legislation fails to protect Canada's youth.

CMAJ | MAY 29, 2017 | VOLUME 189 | ISSUE 21 E737 All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Can adian Medical Association or its subsidiaries. W ith tabling of Bill C-45, the federal government has moved one step closer to fulfilling its election promise to legalize the use of cannabis in Canada, despite concerns over the many health ris...

Advocating for nurses and nursing.

Every nurse has the opportunity to make a positive impact on the profession through day-to-day advocacy for nurses and the nursing profession. In this article the author defines advocacy; describes advocacy skills every nurse can employ to advocate for a safe and healthy work environment; and explains how nurses can advocate for nursing as part of their daily activity whether they are point-of-...

Advocating for family medicine.

Advocating for the advocate.

In 1849, German pathologist Rudolf Virchow, regarded as the father of modern pathology, released a report that stunned the medical establishment. His report, commissioned by the Prussian government to investigate a typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia, a poor rural area of ethnic Poles, advocated 4 “radical” recommendations: the introduction of Polish as an official language, democratic self-govern...