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| polytoxic |
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288846,00.html
Canada Has the Most Pot Smokers in Industrialized World
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
By Marrecca Fiore
Canada ranks fifth worldwide when it comes to marijuana usage, but ranks first among industrialized nations, according to the 2007 World Drug Report.
About 16.8 percent of Canadians ages 15 to 64 light up, compared to 12.6 percent of Americans in the same age bracket, according to the report. Canada’s usage is about four times the worldwide average of 3.8 percent, while the United States' usage is about three times the average.
Marijuana, or cannabis, remains the most commonly used drug in the world with almost 160 million people ages 15 to 64 using it in 2005, said the report, which was put out by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Usage is down slightly from 162 million, according to last year’s World Drug Report, which reviewed data from 2004.
The majority of it is grown in the Americas (46 percent), followed by Africa (26 percent). Canada’s usage trails behind Papua New Guinea and Micronesia at 29 percent each, Ghana at 21.5 percent, and Zambia at 17.7 percent. Among European nations, Cyprus topped the list at 14.1 percent, followed by Italy and Spain, both at 11.2 percent.
Although Canada is a top five user of marijuana, its use among high school students in Ontario declined 19 percent between 2003 and 2005. Cannabis use amongst 12th graders in the U.S. declined 18 percent between 1997 and 2006, and is 38 percent lower than it was at its peak in 1979, the report said.
Cocaine Use Twice as High for U.S. Students
Canada may have cornered the North American market on marijuana use, but U.S. teens are twice as likely to use cocaine as teens in the rest of the world, according to the report.
About 4.8 percent of U.S. 10th graders have used cocaine compared to an average of 2.35 percent of 15 and 16-year-olds in South America countries and an average of 2.4 percent of similarly aged students in European nations.
Overall, Spain had the highest percentage of cocaine users between the ages of 15 and 64 at 3 percent, followed by the U.S. at 2.8 percent, England at 2.4 percent and Canada at 2.3 percent.
Canadian reaction:
http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2007/07/11/4330020-sun.html
Politics and potheads
By MINDELLE JACOBS
(Edmnton Sun)
Next year will mark a century since the 1908 Opium Act and Canada's initial tortuous, costly and fruitless attempt to use the law as a whip to scare people off illicit drugs.
The UN's 2007 World Drug Report is the latest in a long list of studies to underscore the futility of the war on drugs.
Pot consumption in Canada is higher than just about anywhere else in the world, according to the UN, which noted that 16.8% of Canadians aged 15 to 64 used cannabis in 2004.
Only four other countries reported higher rates - Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, Ghana and Zambia.
Then there was the Canadian Press story earlier this week that revealed that the number of people busted for pot possession has jumped by more than one-third in several Canadian cities.
This double dose of reality is further proof that the Harper government should have adopted the Liberals' plan to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Instead, the Conservatives have stubbornly stuck to a law-enforcement approach - blind to history and deaf to the pleas of medical and public policy experts for reform to our drug laws.
But are we really a nation of potheads? Not really, says Benedikt Fischer, a drug and public health expert at the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C.
Prevalence figures such as those cited in the UN study are inflated indicators because they show only the percentage of people who have consumed an illicit drug at least once in the past year, he points out.
Many of the 16.8% of Canadians who said they smoked pot may have only done it once in the past 12 months, Fischer says.
It's like asking people if they've run a red light in the last year - almost everybody has done it on occasion - and concluding that Canada has a major problem with red-light violators, he says.
IRRELEVANT
It's impossible to conclude that 16.8% of Canadians are frequent pot users, emphasizes Fischer. "I'm not worried a great deal about someone who smokes a joint a couple of times a year or even once a month. That, for public health, is almost irrelevant."
The UN study doesn't include patterns of use so the statistics are useless from a public health perspective, he adds.
While many other countries have smaller pot use prevalence rates than Canada, those populations may actually be smoking a lot more pot than Canadians, he says.
Nevertheless, the report suggests that Canadians don't care what the law says about marijuana. They're going to smoke pot anyway. The possibility of punishment, in other words, has no deterrent effect whatsoever.
As far as marijuana is concerned, Canadians think the law is an ass. And that isn't going to change.
"Over the last 10 years, cannabis, despite the law ... has become an accepted mainstream cultural substance," says Fischer, adding that it's the third most popular psychoactive substance next to alcohol and tobacco.
"For many people, it's actually replacing tobacco use, which I think in many ways is actually good for public health," he says.
Only 0.6% of the world's illicit drug users are considered problem drug users and the major worrisome drugs are heroin and cocaine.
So why aren't we spending the bulk of our drug-strategy money on prevention as well as treatment for the worst addicts crippled by the worst drugs?
Instead, three-quarters of the federal money earmarked for the war on drugs goes to law enforcement, treatment programs remain chronically underfunded and we continue to arrest harmless potheads. |
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| Joey |
" So why aren't we spending the bulk of our drug-strategy money on prevention as well as treatment for the worst addicts crippled by the worst drugs? "
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| mojoman |
quote:
Joey wrote:
" So why aren't we spending the bulk of our drug-strategy money on prevention as well as treatment for the worst addicts crippled by the worst drugs? "
He will join us or die, my master |
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| Joey |
quote:
mojoman wrote:
He will join us or die, my master
You have done well my young apprentice !!!!!
Everything is proceeding EXACTLY as I have forseen 
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| fanfucker |
What is the worst drug, Master? |
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| Altamont |
quote:
fanfucker wrote:
What is the worst drug, Master?
Whatever the people were smoking that led them to believe the last great Stones songs were found on Dirty Work.
zing! zip, pow! |
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| pdog |
North America kicks ass...
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