U.S. leads world in substance abuse, WHO finds
Tue Jul 1, 2008 12:30pm EDT

powered by SphereWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States leads the world in rates of experimenting with marijuana and cocaine despite strict drug laws, World Health Organization researchers said on Tuesday.

Countries with looser drug laws have lower rates of abuse, the researchers report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine.

The survey of 54,000 people in 17 countries found that 16 percent of people in the United States had used cocaine in their lifetimes -- far higher than the next highest rate, found in New Zealand, where 4.3 percent of people reported having used cocaine.

More than 42 percent of Americans admitted to having tried cannabis, closely followed by 41 percent in New Zealand, Dr. Louisa Degenhardt of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and an international team of colleagues found.

Americans were also the most likely to have smoked, with 74 percent saying they used tobacco at some time in their lives, although current smoking rates are far lower at 21 percent.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0125478320080701

So do we use because we can? Or do we use because we have such hard lives? Or do we use because we lead such idle lives?

I have never understood the philosophy of needing to get high to have fun.

at least we are leading in something lol j/k

People don't use because "they can" when technically it's illegal to use/abuse.. even prescription meds. I deal with people like this everyday...

OMG! what if oxygens a drug and i "just say no"

How else would Ted Kennedy get elected?

I need my meds but don't abuse them.

Iam not suprised uber umerika is also the most doped up country by legal prescriptions there is something terribly wrong with a country that has a huge % of the population on anti depressants and its kids on rytalin and other mood altering drugs. I wonder if a study has ever been done with legal drugs and illegal drugs factored in to see how much of the population is walking around doped up on something legal or illegal. Oh lets factor in the Red Bulls and over the counter pep pills as well, this goes along ways to explain how the country has fallen so low.

dragoness.....

Maybe the US is leading because we are the only ones telling the truth about substance abuse.