As part of the Government of Canadas 2017 budget released today, nearly $10 million in funding is being set aside over five years to support marijuana public education programming and surveillance activities.
As part of the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy, under the section Public Education Programming and Surveillance for Legalized Cannabis, the commitment also mentions $1 million in funding, ongoing.
Public education programming is expected to cover issues like safe consumption, impaired driving, and available medical research on benefits and harms, among others. Other jurisdictions thathave passed legalization measures have rolled out similar programs, from Uruguay to Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and others, utilizing traditional advertising mediums, as well as social media and peer-to-peer messaging. Figures from 2015show the Conservative government spent over$7 million on a 12-week anti-drug advertising campaign focussing on cannabis.
The governments task force report on the legalization and regulation of cannabis in Canada, released last December, make several recommendations for investments in baseline data collection andongoing surveillance and evaluation in collaboration with provinces and territories ...
