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Cannabis: Study demonstrates the scale of drug's global popularity
Friday, 16 October 2009
enlargeIt is 40 years since cannabis unleashed the "flower power" revolution of the 1960s, encouraging a generation in Europe and the US to "make love not war". Young people at the time hoped their legacy would be world peace. Instead, it has turned out to be a world of fuzzy dope-heads.
In the intervening decades, the drug whose intoxicating effects have been known for 4,000 years has been increasingly adopted by adolescents and young adults across the globe.
Today, an estimated one in 25 adults of working age – 166 million people around the world – has used cannabis to get high, either in ignorance or defiance of its damaging effects on health. Now, the extraordinary popularity of the drug is posing a significant public health challenge, doctors say.
Writing in The Lancet, Wayne Hall of the University of Queensland and Louisa Degenhardt of the University of New South Wales, Australia, say cannabis slows reaction times and increases the risk of accidents, causes bronchitis, interferes with learning, memory and education and, most seriously, may double the risk of schizophrenia. Yet these effects have failed to dent its popularity.
"Since cannabis use was first reported over 40 years ago by US college students, its recreational or non-medical use has spread globally, first to high- income countries, and recently to low-income and middle-income countries," they say.
Citing figures from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime for 2006, they say cannabis use is highest in the US, Australia and New Zealand (where more than 8 per cent of the population indulge), followed by Europe. But because Asia and Africa have bigger populations, they also have the highest proportion of the world's cannabis users, accounting for almost a third (31 per cent) and a quarter (25 per cent) respectively.
Use of cannabis among young people rose strongly during the 1960s and 1970s, peaking in the US in 1979. There was then a long decline until it increased again in the 1990s, before levelling off once more since 2000. In Britain, Australia and New Zealand, cannabis use has been falling for several years, but it is thought to be rising in Latin America and several countries in Africa.
The typical user smokes their first joint in their mid-teens, with use peaking in the mid-20s. The habit then declines steeply as young people move into jobs and discover they have to get up in the morning. Marriage and babies accelerate the decline. About one in 10 of those who ever smoke a joint become regular daily users, with 20 to 30 per cent using the drug weekly. Regular users are also more likely to use other illicit drugs, including heroin and cocaine, lending support to the theory that "soft" drugs act as a "gateway" to hard drugs. But the authors admit this supposed link "remains a subject of considerable debate".
However, they add that the ill effects of cannabis are modest when compared with the damage done by alcohol, tobacco and other illicit drugs. In Australia, it accounted for just 0.2 per cent of the total burden of disease.
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Anthonie, I am in full support of your argument, I am studying for my BSc Psychology degree and smoke cannabis every day; I find personally, if anything it enhances my concentration and ability to understand complex information. From reviewing many journals (particularly California State University) I have come to accept that cannabis is helpful to health; individuals who use cannabis show to be less depressed to those who don't, suffer less with illness (cannabis has an antibiotic effect) and have a higher sense of well-being. It is also known that individuals who develop schizophrenia after smoking cannabis already have a disposition for the disorder; this can also be triggered by stress, and there is no global battle on stress and stressors. I do not drink and am also health concerned, and strongly feel that I am doing right by my health by embracing this herb; I have not taken a paracetamol in three years and my liver thanks me for that. I would like to see unbiased scientific evid
Posted by Esmee | 27.10.09, 21:46 GMT
Stuart, these people you know who 'became idiots after smoking weed"...I suspect they were idiots before-hand. I've 'smoked' weed all my life. I hold a PhD in physics, have a good job, don't drink and am health-conscious. Does this fit your stereotype of "pot-smokers"? I don't smoke tobacco either I vape it. Their have been studies into the psychological effects on users. One suspects they had mental problems anyway. For every study that says it is bad I can present one that says it is relatively harmless. Everything in moderation. All my friends enjoy using it and they are intelligent people with what you would call law-abiding 'normal' lives. They are well-balanced and sociable. None of them moved on to 'harder' drugs. Why is cannabis illegal in some countries but alcohol is legal? Alcohol is much more damaging to users and those who most deal with those alcohol does not agree with. Where do we stop? Caffeine is an addictive drug. Why don't we ban that? Makes no sense.
Posted by Anthonie, Amsterdam | 22.10.09, 03:42 GMT
There are loads of scientific studies that clearly show that Cannabis is a dangerous drug, both for long term and short term users. Just google it if you doubt me. The posts regarding this article should serve as a warning to others who are considering using... Cannabis does effect your cognitive abilities and your sense of reasoning. Even without the scientific studies, my own findings, based on never meeting a well balanced pot head in my life, and seeing so many bright young people turn into idiots, is enough to convince me of its disabling effects on the human condition and character.
Posted by Stuart | 21.10.09, 00:23 GMT
This is a stupid article. But anyway...get cannabis/weed out of the hands of criminal scumbag gangs who are making lots of money selling it to otherwise law-abiding people. Legalise it, tax it, control it. Use the massive influx of tax money from it to fund something worthwhile - like hospitals and education. Its a no-brainer.
Posted by Membrane | 20.10.09, 11:50 GMT
Has Jeremy Laurance lived a sheltered life or something, angry he's spent his youth sipping tea and playing Connect4 with his granny, he states cannabis is used to get high, either in ignorance or defiance of its damaging effects on health. It is a recreational drug just like like a nice glass of wine, harmless in moderation.
Posted by KermitTheFrog | 20.10.09, 09:50 GMT
the governments losing out on SO MUCH money for something that'd bring in tourists and it would be controlled.. cafe's etc, jobs.. but i can hardly see this backwards country agreeing on anything
Posted by fed up | 20.10.09, 02:18 GMT
I'm ecstatic to see support for its legalisation from other readers as I strongly believe that for the case of cannabis - pro choice is simply the only way forward.
For decades our governments have been ripping tax payers off to the sum of billions to chase down these "criminals" that use cannabis in a war on drugs that was doomed to fail since the beginning.
The problem we have in our country is that we are devoutly conservative. Because of this, cannabis has a wrongful social stigma attached to it and its users.
Once people realise that it's just a plant - a smokable equivalent to beer hops if you will - then we can all stop being silly about it.
Posted by P Wilson | 19.10.09, 13:02 GMT
Derek
You're right. The author works hard to paint a picture of great harms of cannabis, but there are no signficant, long-term harms. The worst is mild irritation to the lungs (never a reported case of cancer), and even that is solved by consuming it in other ways besides smoking. Vaporizing is probably the best.
The simple truth is cannabis is non-addictive and far less harmful than alcohol. This prohibition was a monstrous fraud from the beginning and has turned into a profitable Inquisition for those pushing the trend toward police states in the Western world.
Posted by John Thomas | 17.10.09, 23:02 GMT
This article is obviously coming from the side that wants to throw everybody in jail and take their money and freedom of using a natural herb. The last two US presidents and the sitting president tried marijuana, so I guess they are lazy stupid couch potatoes and the person who wrote this propaganda is a hero to himself. Marijuana is so dangerous the USG has a patent on it as an antioxidant neoprotectant medicine. Cannabiniods are also is know to shrink cancerous tumors. Prison guards and police state autocrats like to criminalize others and steal their possessions and money under false pretenses.
Posted by Ken Driessen | 17.10.09, 17:31 GMT
slows reaction times and increases the risk of accidents, causes bronchitis, interferes with learning, memory and education and, most seriously, may double the risk of schizophrenia. Yet these effects have failed to dent its popularity.
Does the Govrnment plan to ban this evil alcohol stuff then?
Posted by Sartorius | 16.10.09, 13:21 GMT
So cannabis use is highest in the US, the home of the global war on drugs, that says it all really.
For heavens sake it's time to get real with cannabis, of course it isn't totally harmless, few things people do for fun are and it's right we should be aware of the problems it can cause.
But what the law should be doing is seeking to protect the vulnerable, not trying to stop everyone from using it because that clearly doesn't work.
Leglaisation would probably mean greater use, that's true, but it would also mean unpolluted supplies of known strength and content (important for cannabis which is a blend of THC and CBD). It would also mean workable laws designed to keep kids from buying it. Legalisation would make cannabis a controlled drug in the real plain english use of the word "controlled", rather than as it is now a cash cow for organised crime.
Cannabis prohibion is nothing but a sick failure, it's time to bury it.
Posted by Derek Williams | 16.10.09, 11:09 GMT