BREAKING: Discover How A Slacker Makes $100,000 A Year!

WEBMASTERS! Get Your Website To The Top Of Google

GLOBAL STUDY SHOWS THAT DRUG PROHIBITION IS A FAILURE

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

By Steve Higgins | According to a new survey the USA has highest level of illegal cocaine and cannabis use in the world. Thank goodness the War for Drugs is working so well! Ohh… wait… that’s the war ON drugs and it’s supposed to protect us from ourselves and our nasty drug habits. Well anyway.. here’s the details on the study:

A survey of 17 countries has found that despite its punitive drug policies the United States has the highest levels of illegal cocaine and cannabis use. The study, by Louisa Degenhardt (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) and colleagues, is based on the World Health Organization’s Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) and is published in this week’s PLoS Medicine.
The authors found that 16.2% of people in the United States had used cocaine in their lifetime, a level much higher than any other country surveyed (the second highest level of cocaine use was in New Zealand, where 4.3% of people reported having used cocaine). Cannabis use was
highest in the US (42.4%), followed by New Zealand (41.9%).

In the Americas, Europe, Japan, and New Zealand, alcohol had been used by the vast majority of survey participants, compared to smaller proportions in the Middle East, Africa, and China.

The survey found differences in both legal and illegal drug use among different socioeconomic groups. For example, males were more likely than females to have used all drug types; younger adults were more likely than older adults to have used all drugs examined; and higher income was related to drug use of all kinds. Marital status was found to be related to tobacco, cannabis, and cocaine use, but not alcohol use (the never married and previously married having higher odds of lifetime cocaine and cannabis use than the currently married; tobacco use is more likely in people who have been previously married while less likely among the never married).

Drug use “does not appear to be simply related to drug policy,” say the authors, “since countries with more stringent policies towards illegal drug use did not have lower levels of such drug use than countries with more liberal policies.” In the Netherlands, for example, which has more liberal policies than the US, 1.9% of people reported cocaine use and 19.8% reported cannabis use.

Data on drug use were available from 54,068 survey participants in 17 countries. The 17 countries were determined by the availability of research collaborators and on funding for the survey. Trained lay interviewers carried out face-to-face interviews (except in France where the interviews were done over the telephone) using a standardized, structured diagnostic interview for psychiatric conditions and drug use. Participants were asked if they had ever used alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, or cocaine.

The study’s main limitations are that only 17 countries were surveyed, within these countries there were different rates of participation, and it is unclear whether people accurately report
their drug use when interviewed. Nevertheless, the findings present comprehensive data on the patterns of drug use from national samples representing all regions of the world.

Citation: Degenhardt L, Chiu W-T, Sampson N, Kessler RC, Anthony JC, et al. (2008) Toward a global view of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and cocaine use: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. PLoS
Med 5(7): e141. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050141.

So the take home messages… people in the U.S. have a bunch of disposable income for drugs and we really f’n love cocaine! Although (I should really look at the article directly), it doesn’t look like they check out the countries in which the cocaine was produced. I’d be curious to see a survey on a wider variety of countries.

And finally… the most important take home message: Drug Policy has NOTHING to do with drug use. We can put users, dealers, producers, cousins of uncles of friends of users, their dogs, cats, guinea pigs, or the lint under their couches in jail or to death and it will have no effect on whether people use drugs or not. Education however… just maybe that will help. Oh.. that and taxation - Heavy heavy taxation. After all tobacco use has gone drastically down in the last decade with more education and higher drug prices.

Have Your Say: GLOBAL STUDY SHOWS THAT DRUG PROHIBITION IS A FAILURE
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Indicators Point to a Softening of America’s Marijuana Laws

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

Have Your Say: Indicators Point to a Softening of America’s Marijuana Laws
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Decriminalising Pot Would Save $10 Billion a Year

Monday, April 21st, 2008

Have Your Say: Decriminalising Pot Would Save $10 Billion a Year
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

How to Improve the Economy - Legalise Cannabis

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

Have Your Say: How to Improve the Economy - Legalise Cannabis
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Salvia divinorum targeted as next marijuana

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Have Your Say: Salvia divinorum targeted as next marijuana
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Father Jailed For 0.01g Of Cannabis

Friday, February 8th, 2008

Have Your Say: Father Jailed For 0.01g Of Cannabis
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

How America Lost the War on Drugs

Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

Have Your Say: How America Lost the War on Drugs
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Cannabis lowers greenhouse emissions

Thursday, November 22nd, 2007

Have Your Say: Cannabis lowers greenhouse emissions
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Moronic marijuana policies

Monday, November 19th, 2007

Have Your Say: Moronic marijuana policies
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Cannabis may prevent breast cancer

Monday, November 19th, 2007

Have Your Say: Cannabis may prevent breast cancer
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Tell the truth about cannabis

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

Have Your Say: Tell the truth about cannabis
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

The Truth About Marijuana Legalisation

Tuesday, September 4th, 2007

Have Your Say: The Truth About Marijuana Legalisation
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Lie detectors target benefit claim cheats

Sunday, September 2nd, 2007

Have Your Say: Lie detectors target benefit claim cheats
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Pot Growers Are New Target in “War on Terror”

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

Have Your Say: Pot Growers Are New Target in “War on Terror”
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Smoking Ban To Hit Amsterdam Coffee Shops

Saturday, June 9th, 2007

Have Your Say: Smoking Ban To Hit Amsterdam Coffee Shops
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report in our forum .

Related News

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 6:12 am and is filed under Contributions & Guests . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Translate: