TV Schedule

Americans are world's top drug users despite harsh drug laws

  2. pigmonkey
  3. related topics
Image...
Americans are the world's top consumers of cannabis and cocaine despite punitive US drug laws, according to an international study published in the online scientific magazine PLoS Medicine.

The study, released Monday, revealed that 16.2 percent of Americans had tried cocaine at least once, and 42.4 percent had used marijuana.

In second-place New Zealand, just 4.3 percent of study participants had used cocaine, and 41.9 percent marijuana.

The research was conducted at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, based on World Health Organization data from 54,068 people in 17 countries.

Rates of participation differed from country to country, and researchers noted uncertainty over how honestly people report their own drug use.

"Nevertheless, the findings present comprehensive data on the patterns of drug use from national samples representing all regions of the world," a PLoS statement said.

A vast majority of survey participants from the United States, Europe, Japan and New Zealand had consumed alcohol, compared to smaller percentages from the Middle East, Africa and China.

The data also revealed socioeconomic patterns in drug use. Single young adult men with high income had the greatest tendency to regularly use drugs.

Drug use "does not appear to be simply related to drug policy," the researchers wrote, "since countries with more stringent policies toward illegal drug use did not have lower levels of such drug use than countries with more liberal policies."

In the Netherlands, where drug policy is more liberal than the United States, 1.9 percent of survey participants said they had used cocaine and 19.8 percent marijuana.

Twelve US 12 states including California permit medical use of marijuana, but possession and use remains prohibited under federal law.

And despite the US government's massive anti-drug efforts, the United States remains the world's top drug market, one amply supplied by South American cartels.

The US Drug Enforcement Agency has observed ever larger quantities of illegal drugs pouring into the country.

"We are seizing greater quantities of illegal drugs than ever before," said a DEA statement last week.

In 2007, agents seized 41 metric tons of cocaine in just two raids, and denied drug traffickers record-breaking revenue of 3.5 billion dollars for the year, it said.


pigmonkey

93 responses // Americans are world's top drug users despite harsh drug laws

  •  

    Oh, I don't know about that! Us Canadians do a pretty good job of consuming that stuff.

    LogicalOctopus
    3 responses to this
  •  

    People want what they are told they can't have....

    1percent
    1 response to this
  •  

    yes we did it , congratulations everybody

    fuckbush
    3 responses to this
  •  

    We need that weed just to endure the Bush43 Administration without going insane.

    recommended by CarolynGillis
    96thdayofrage
  •  

    I will smoke a green bowl to that....

    Leonidis
    2 responses to this
  •  

    It really pisses me off when researchers and politicians refer to weed as a drug. In my own persona opinion a drug is a substance that has been CHEMICALLY processed.Weed is havested,dried,and smoked.No enhancment.Unlike TOBBACCO!!

    P.S.Alcohol is chemically treated too.

    pissedoffinarkansas
    3 responses to this
  •  

    Look at the deaths from our friends in the drug industries. They took what they wanted from recreational drugs and ran with it. Lobby, lobby, lobby get your pills here!
    To legalize recreational drugs would help put a stop to things like; drug lords in Afganistan( money for the Tali ), murdered cops in Mexico( smuggle away ), drug addiction ( won't stop it but will fund treatment ).
    Alcohol is a drug, trust me!

    macdontcare
  •  

    Word. Smoke weed all day!

    piff
  •  

    I have smoked pot for 35 years, this war on drugs is a
    front. The pot smoked in u.s. is grown here,where is all
    this money going?This is another war we can not win but
    the money needs to be in the budget,billions of worthless dollars. Having tried some drugs none made me addicted but pot does help sick people. So lets save all that money and feed the children, house the homeless,empty the jails and let people live the way they
    want.

    regularrf
  •  
    watch this comment being used here, here, here and here

    how much does the war on drugs cost? 'cuz its ummmm.....pointless. you wanna smoke a doobie, you're gonna smoke a doobie.

    humanpasta
    3 responses to this
  •  

    most of us use drugs 4 some alment
    i use herion becouse my pain pills cost
    $2857.38 a month my (herion $220week)
    you do the math

    COOLVDUB
    2 responses to this
  •  

    Speaking of weed, have you seen the movie "Super High Me" with Doug Benson?

    Instead of eating McDonalds for 30 days, Doug Benson Stays sober for 30 days, then smokes pot for 30 days (all day) and films it. He scores higher on the SAT's while high among many other hilarious events. He also uses a sweet vaporizor that had to cost at least $500!

    check it out

    I rate this move **** Four Spliffs

    currentlyJessica
    1 response to this
  •  

    there has never been such a thing as a "pot baby" , like there is with "crack babies" , and given this "study" , which necessarily implies that there are a lot of herb smoking mothers having babies , i'd have to say that pot is more than likely good for children , from day one .

    malathion
    1 response to this
  •  

    We need something to get our minds off of the crazy stuff that goes on here.

    TravG73
  •  

    TravG73 has got the germ of the situation: We have the most usage because we have a society that has the most stress and insanity.

    That 'glass ceiling' that women have been hitting is even more real for our lowest economic classes. Once you have been hit with some monetary sucker punches, hope fades into endless stress and boredom.

    And even those upwardly focussed folks who are trapped in a never-ending rat race are finding that no amount of work gets you one step ahead?

    So why shouldn't these folks want even a few hours of respite in drugs?

    So, Mr. Big Government and your pal Faceless Corporation Esq. , what can you offer instead? And don't tell me it's longer prison sentences, I've heard that one too many times to believe it.

    Stop the craziness!!!

    jahbini
  •  

    Dang.

    currentkid
  •  

    Pot is not a drug, a mood enhancer yes, a drug no. But legalize it along with all other drugs as well as prostitution. if a person wants to get high and have some sex who are they harming. Wake up politicians, there is money to be saved on the Narcs and the DEA budget would come in handy towards education instead of ruining innocent peoples lives with petty bust for smoking some of nature's best.

    Robroy1
    2 responses to this
  •  

    pot is a drug
    there is no way around this.

    I'd legalise them all right now if i could but they are all still drugs.

    Trying to say it's not is stupid.

    Drug: a substance which alters the brain.

    Owwmykneecap
    1 response to this
  •  
    watch this comment being used here, here, here and here

    Maybe we can look at something more than this topic itself, like maybe the fact reality is not tolerable in America anymore. And if you think our reality is a walk in the park, your in the wrong neighborhood. Although I am somehow ignorantly proud of us.. Olympics? pfft!

    LuckyTripps
  •  

    Obviously. Not. Working.

    ILiveonaClock
  •  

    We are so doomed to repeat it. How did that prohabition thing work out for us? Jay Leno said it best "THe war on drugs is the people who abuse prescription drugs against the people who do street drugs."

    bluestranger
    1 response to this
  •  

    Most countrys have successfully made drugs boring.

    prozach0
  •  

    I was raised in a country where the drug laws were harsh. There was no social pressure. I never did it.

    I have observed something interesting among people who smoke, they talk about it like crazy and their lives are on hold.. when they make more money, they just buy better drugs.

    Losers!

    arcticspirit
    2 responses to this
  •  

    That's their choice though arcrticspirit, that is what is important to them and it's important that they are allowed to make their own choice regardless if they are "ruining" their lives or not.

    M_Pavlov
    2 responses to this
  •  

    Yeah, I hear you.... but it saddens me... so pathetic.

    arcticspirit
123
1 - 25 of 60

Add your response

Login/Registration is required to add a response