Legal Cannabis Inspires a First for Drowning Reports

A new drowning report's being published from the Lifesaving Society of Manitoba. Yesterday they released a unique version of the report seeing as it's the first time they looked at impairment influences with respect to drowning beyond only alcohol. Acting CAO Kevin Tordiffe says it's a first for looking at a broader picture.

"It's the legalization of cannabis in Canada that motivated us to take a look at this," explains Tordiffe. "Essentially, we really saw our annual drowning report in the summer. This year we started to get a lot of questions about what the influence of cannabis is. When we looked back at past reports we noticed we never had anything other than alcohol reported."

Tordiffe explains their reports combine all forms of impairment as influences to drowning. Cannabis had been part of the illegal drug category up until now, and over ten years it was found to contribute seven percent of itself plus other illegal drugs in all drownings reported.

"Legal drugs -- prescription medications -- is contributing about four percent of drowning incidents," continues Tordiffe. "The culprit that we have been tracking for many years when it comes to drowning is alcohol. And alcohol still remains a very high percentage at 37 percent across the country."

He says impairment is not limited to driving a car or boat. Tordiffe notes you could be walking near water, and adds being under the influence can impact your ability to survive an accidental fall into the water. He says the bottom line is to be sober around water.