Americans are world's top drug users: study

Americans are world's top drug users: study

news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Americans are the world's top consumers of cannabis and coc aine 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 coc aine at least once, and 42.4 percent had used marijuana.

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

(visit the link for the full news article)

16.2% have used coc aine? Does this number seem just a tad inflated to anyone else? In 32 years of life I've never even seen coc aine, let alone tried it. I can believe the pot issue, although I'd think Canada would be just as high (pun intended) as we are here, but I could be wrong.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by burdman30ott6


I don't think it's inflated at all, burdman, infact i think it might even be "deflated".

Clever wordplay, by the way.

I personally found this information surprising. I would think it would be the other way around...where, drug use would be higher amongst places where drugs were legalized, such as Canada and Amsterdam. I guess that's not true though..huh...go figure.

NO 1 Again ! America F*^% Yeah!

If only 16.2% of Americans said they've done Coke, then I'd say at least another 16.2% lied when they said they hadn't.

NO 1 Again ! America F*^% Yeah!

Thats the America we love and know!! ( ... or just know).

As with the statistics, I wonder what the CIA will do with all the excess funds!

Breifne

This means little and I'll explain why, something the writer of that article could've and should've done, but was too busy trying to make Americans look like the world's biggest druggies.

The USA shares a land route, and MANY near coastal sea routes from the primary source of the world's coc aine; Colombia, and the surrounding states, smuggled via Mexican cartels. Right now the Mexican cartels are kicking the Mexican police arse .. pretty badly .. if you've been following the news, its kinda sad. These cartels are better equipped and trained with guns than the police.

Now, if the study included a third drug, heroin, it would've completely reshaped the structure of the study. I'm willing to be that per-capita, or per population density, on a percentage level, there must be European, and former Soviet Republics that have more users of that, and more people who've tried it. I'm sure they also have more trafficking of it. And why is this? Because they share multiple land routes with Afghanistan and the surrounding region, the primary heroin producer in the world right now.

So really, Americans are just fortunate or unfortunate enough to live close to Colombia. And the Eastern Europeans and Russians have the displeasure of heroin epidemics from all that Afghani dope ..

[edit on 7/1/2008 by runetang]

Originally posted by Mad_Hatter
I personally found this information surprising. I would think it would be the other way around...where, drug use would be higher amongst places where drugs were legalized, such as Canada and Amsterdam. I guess that's not true though..huh...go figure.

Not really no . It's comparable to a young person that isn't allowed to do anything when living with their parents, when they can get away with it they will go totally wild. Same thing with this, we are allowed to do soft drugs so the numbers go down. A briljant piece of reverse psychology.

To bad it will be abolished with that whole EU thing coming up and biting us in the behind but i'm just happy i grew out of it in time.

Here's a piece on it in wikipedia:en.wikipedia.org...

Another site: www.drugwarfacts.org...

And google is your friend www.google.nl...

Those who think the number is deflated, are you serious? Where in the world have I been? I've lived in New Mexico, Arizona, and Western Washington and I was being honest when I said I've never even seen coke before.

Originally posted by Cadbury
If only 16.2% of Americans said they've done Coke, then I'd say at least another 16.2% lied when they said they hadn't.

Exactly, once a coke-head always a coke-head IMO, What else do they do illegally I wonder.

burdman..,

I have just scoured the PLoS website (including the Medical channel) back to April '08 for the source study and can find it nowhere. I'm not saying Yahoo made this up, but PLoS cannot be said to have 'published' this report if it's not there to read. Mind you, news agencies take all sorts of liberties with surveys anyway, so I was just being my usual nosy self and trying to dig some factors out for our mutual enjoyment.

If you have better luck finding the cited survey please link it - I would appreciate that.

MM

Originally posted by Mad_Hatter
I personally found this information surprising. I would think it would be the other way around...where, drug use would be higher amongst places where drugs were legalized, such as Canada and Amsterdam. I guess that's not true though..huh...go figure.

Drugs are not legalized in Canada, or Amsterdam. You have been misinformed. Cannabis is tolerated in Amsterdam, but not legal. Canada is the same as it's always been, illegal.

reply to post by 38181


Probably eat human flesh every friday while shooting darts at a cat on the wall
. Ok, sorry but people that use illigal substances are not always per definition all round criminals or evil, really they aren't. It's a kind of generalisation that is to easy to make and is partly responsible for the 'they/us' attitude that demolishes more than it creates, sadly.

reply to post by Maxmars


Sure thing.
medicine.plosjournals.org... st=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050141

Why can't I get the link system to work today?

medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050141

I'm sorry, please cut & paste this and you'll go straight to the source report.

[edit on 1-7-2008 by burdman30ott6]

i have my problems with this article. the article says the US is the top consumer of said subtances. however, the report was a question of, " have you tried at least once. if you ask me, i would have answerd yes to both questions. but, my current consumption is zero. because, i no longer use.

so the article is missleading.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Americans are the world's top consumers of cannabis and coc aine despite punitive US drug laws, according to an international study published in the online scientific magazine PLoS Medicine.

ADVERTISEMENT

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

source: news.yahoo.com...

you cant ask the question in the past tense, and state the answer in the present tense. if that makes sense.

-----------------edit---------------

i think the author of the article was trying to prove that the "war on drugs" was not working. and using this study as supporting evidence.

[edit on 1-7-2008 by JSR]

Originally posted by burdman30ott6


16.2% have used coc aine? Does this number seem just a tad inflated to anyone else? In 32 years of life I've never even seen coc aine, let alone tried it. I can believe the pot issue, although I'd think Canada would be just as high (pun intended) as we are here, but I could be wrong.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

if youve never used coke you dont know any of the 'tells'. Im not saying you should do it either but i am saying if you did you would know who else is doing it around you. Its more than you think.

I am a bit surprised to hear so many here are surprised.

My wife is from France, one of my best friends is from Switzerland, and I have traveled a fair amount mostly around the Mediterranean.

My experiance and what I have been told is that peop0le 'outside' of the USA are shocked by the amounts of consumption of both drugs and alcohol. I am pretty well behaved and people made comments about my drinking.

I am a firm believer that this is an INTENDED situation. It is created for obvious reasons ... namely control.

Someone mentioned being shocked that drug use is higher here in the USA than in countries where drugs are legal. I will have to dig it up but I have read drug use DECREASED as a result of legalization. Go figure.

I love the USA and I love many many many people that live here, but by and large we are a country that PRIDES itself on consumption. The more you consume is a sign of your worth. "Bigger is better" in the USA that is the bottom line.

They study should've included people who abuse prescription pills whether they have a prescription or not. Had they done that I'm sure the numbers would be somewhere around 75-80% especially if we're talking about people who have "just tried it once".

Apparently farmers smoke a lot of weed too:
"You ever try farmin not high? Boring as s#!t!"

reply to post by Shadowflux


Excellent point! I would also be interested to see comparisons done with MethAmphetamines. A rather disgusting drug that does horrible damage to humans and is one I think of as All American.