Report: U.S. has highest rates of cocaine, marijuana use

[ureapwhatusow]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/07/report-us-has-h.html



The United States has some of the world's toughest drug laws. It also has some of the highest rates of drug use, according to a new World Health Organization report.

When researchers associated with the international agency studied illicit drug use in 17 countries, Reuters says they found that Americans were much more likely to use cocaine and marijuana than their counterparts in other countries, including those with relatively lax drug laws.

"The use of drugs seems to be a feature of more affluent countries. The U.S., which has been driving much of the world's drug research and drug policy agenda, stands out with higher levels of use of alcohol, cocaine, and cannabis, despite punitive illegal drug policies, as well as (in many U.S. states), a higher minimum legal alcohol drinking age than many comparable developed countries," the researchers write, according WebMD.

 

[greenhead]

Good news, at least on the marijuana usage! That's a statistic to be proud of, and other countries should follow! Everybody should smoke weed.

 

[zeeba amoeba]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/07/report-us-has-h.html



The United States has some of the world's toughest drug laws. It also has some of the highest rates of drug use, according to a new World Health Organization report.

When researchers associated with the international agency studied illicit drug use in 17 countries, Reuters says they found that Americans were much more likely to use cocaine and marijuana than their counterparts in other countries, including those with relatively lax drug laws.

"The use of drugs seems to be a feature of more affluent countries. The U.S., which has been driving much of the world's drug research and drug policy agenda, stands out with higher levels of use of alcohol, cocaine, and cannabis, despite punitive illegal drug policies, as well as (in many U.S. states), a higher minimum legal alcohol drinking age than many comparable developed countries," the researchers write, according WebMD.

This is an interesting news article and I'm replying in part to bump it up.

I think conservatives will say, the U.S. has more druggies because of black people. Liberals will say, the U.S. anti-drug policy is actually counter-productive, resulting in people going to harder drugs. Think about what happens the first time someone goes to prison, from then on out they get immersed in a criminal lifestyle. Prison doesn't reform, it makes ppl harder and often crazy as shit. Downward spiral.

 

[binaryfission]

people have to be doped up to get screwed continually with no lube. they have held these titles for a while no??

 

[PhenoMenal]

hmm maybe we can challenge you lol ..

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=90400
"news article: Australia has the highest rate of dope smokers in the world"

 

[zeeba amoeba]

hmm maybe we can challenge you lol ..

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=90400
"news article: Australia has the highest rate of dope smokers in the world"

They are probably counting all drugs in the American study. More people drink and pop pills than smoke pot.

 

[Don Cotyle]

I know I'm doing my part growing and smokeing!!!!!!!! I've also helped a few grow their own meds and recreational smoke!!!!!

 

[southflorida]

a lot of people drink, take drugs, and other unhealthy shit.....as a way to help them ignore reality

marijuana is one of the few psychoactive things that actually help many folks to concentrate more and see at least some of the reality in their life

and reality is most mofos have to stop smoking tobacco, stop drinking alcohol, stop smoking herb and everything else they are doing and do some work

smoking herb when you feel like shit is counterproductive in my opinion

being high is the best when you are on an upward spiral in life

when life sucks.....you should grow....but about smoking.....judge on how it makes you really feel....if it helps you get out of the rut....keep toking

if not...stop until you get out of the rut....then continue

 

[binaryfission]

They are probably counting all drugs in the American study. More people drink and pop pills than smoke pot.

if they added pills and alcohol the states would be the undefeated champ. so many housewifes and little kids on pills.

just think if pot were like wine, there is more than enough genetic variation to find a strain for everyone.



PEACE

 

[zeeba amoeba]

a lot of people drink, take drugs, and other unhealthy shit.....as a way to help them ignore reality

marijuana is one of the few psychoactive things that actually help many folks to concentrate more and see at least some of the reality in their life

and reality is most mofos have to stop smoking tobacco, stop drinking alcohol, stop smoking herb and everything else they are doing and do some work

smoking herb when you feel like shit is counterproductive in my opinion

being high is the best when you are on an upward spiral in life

when life sucks.....you should grow....but about smoking.....judge on how it makes you really feel....if it helps you get out of the rut....keep toking

if not...stop until you get out of the rut....then continue

I bought a packet of hookah at the head shop where I bought my water bong, but quit smoking it. I hate the thought of wasting it, but it's just not worth the lung damage.

Same concept with alcohol... booze just brings me down. I feel like a broken record because I said the same in other threads. It is a profound revelation in my life. When I experience a profound revelation, it resonates like a stone dropping into an empty well.

I went twenty years without marijuana. Yes, that's right, not a single toke, and mostly avoided places where pot could be smoked. I was offered a joint several times and always said no. (Wistfully.) No, I did *NOT* become a turncoat anti-drug nazi. If asked, I always said that I favored legalization, because marijuana was harmless. I knew this from personal experience. Sometimes I volunteered this opinion, bringing the subject up, because I have always been opposed to the drug war and its unending violence.

I resumed smoking pot after urine tests left my life. Goodbye, corporate America! And your weekend beer binges, tobacco cravings and caffeine addiction. God, I was up to five cups of coffee a day! It was eating into my stomach lining.

Now that I am partaking of Her Holiness again, I notice certain qualities of the medicine. Positive effects, if you will. First of all, we all know of pot's calming effect. Contrast that to booze which starts fights.

Pot eliminates my habit of brooding over negative things. I can live truly in the moment when I'm high. My biggest shortcoming is holding on to negative memories, especially concerning women. My concentration and focus seem enhanced as well, for activities such as writing or playing video games, although I would never drive. I'm sure hand/eye coordination deteriorates. I am opposed to DUI because I've read about too many people getting killed, especially young pedestrians, of which I was one myself.

I recently lost a female penpal, who had exchanged lengthy, brainy and sexy correspondence with me for two weeks, at the rate of 1x per day. This was the reason she broke up with me, in fact, because I refused to write more than one message per day. To me that sounds bratty, but she's eye candy and has probably grown accustomed to making demands of men.

She told me of drinking late one night at a bar and dancing with a strange man. His sex pressed into her (she liked it) and his hand reached around, down her back. Her tight jeans stretched as his fingers found her lips. She was moist and warm. Stories like this made me decorate my keyboard more than once.

Funny how the old pain comes back, the one from previous relationships, like an old wound. A dozen puffs from the trusty vaporizer, and the feelings associated with her memory are vaporized. They are rendered irrelevant; interesting artifacts with a poetic value, but not of any importance anymore, just old history.

Bless the sacred plant, which we need now more than ever in a time of economic recession and overseas war, when America is losing its prestige and influence, and we witness other powers growing. The time has come to retrench ourselves, to reduce the military-war machine, and begin producing products that the world wants. The world does not want our bombs. Weed will help us understand this mystery.

 

[southflorida]

zeeba....i didnt smoke weed from 24 to 37...that is 13 years straight.....and didnt miss it at all

but to be honest i moved from usa at that age and lived in eastern europe where weed is not smoked by many like in america....where I grew up

in florida...almost everyone I knew smoked weed...except my parents it seems.....lol

and had a serious relationship.....that also went bad....this made me give everything up and travel to mexico.....then back to cali...and then to arizona...after that back to florida....and after that to eastern europe

while on my trip to mexico......cali....arizona....i smoked cocaine...did LSD....and smoke pounds of weed....mostly sativas from mexico

my life was so fuc...ed up...especially from smoking cocaine....we cooked it in amonia and smoked it in a small glass tube pipe

the high from smoking coke was simply awesome....i loved it....and once I gave it up I promised myself I will never touch that addictive shit again

we did so many crimes to support our habit....and my partners in crime (wife and husband team) were heroine addicts.....i was afraid of needles and because of this never touched it

but last year at 37 i went to holland for a vacation...and sampled massive weed....started with ww...which sent me to another planet...i mean i was so high...it felt like i was on mars

this year i rocked it also trying the best sativas I could find

















these are a few samples...best was amnesia haze, then chocolope, nevilles haze, mako haze, and super silver haze
hashes were ok but nothing to write home about

 

[socioecologist]

Just a note of response to Zeeba's "the U.S. has more druggies because of black people" (I couldn't tell if you were serious or not?).

Substance abuse is causally linked with income, which is directly related to race. If you are Black, Latino, or Native American in the US, you can expect to earn significantly less than your white counterpart, and by the end of your life (on average), your net worth will be approximately 1/8 of the average white person's.

All this for something that isn't even biologically real (there is no biological basis for the social construct we know as "race") makes me sad.

 

[southflorida]

in america it is tough to be white also......being black, latino, native american, asian, etc...etc....makes it even tougher in some ways

but everyone who wants to make it in america....no matter what color their skin....can make it big time...look at dr.dre....50 cent....Jay-Z...and all those sportsman

and examples of others are so many...i wont go into it here

just many ppl sit on their ass and complain...and that doesnt do shit for you...at the end all you have is a depression or something

i lived in america for 14 years straight...and when I was 24 I moved back to the country from which my parents immigrated to USA in 1980 from soviet union at that time

now my country is part of the european union.......and it fuc...ing sucks for many people....inflation 20% per year....real estate prices dropped massively...and no one can get a loan in the bank because of stupid government laws to restrict bank credits

in 3 years when my son finishes school i'm moving to holland and gonna live there for the rest of my life

 

[socioecologist]

everyone who wants to make it in america....no matter what color their skin....can make it big time.

No they can't. The US is second worst nation in the developed world when it comes to class mobility (the UK is #1). Citing singular examples demonstrates that some can get ahead, but the overwhelming majority cannot. You have to look at the big picture, not just one example.

 

[James-Bong]

:friends: ....weeee arrrrree the Champions......no time for losers...... :friends:

 

[southflorida]

sociecologist...looking at the overwhelming majority...does very little of good.....because most people live in a reactive-responsive reality where their life is ruled by circumstances and they are trapped in a maze going from one dead end to another

what I'm saying is any person in America can *create* what *matters* to them if they work their ass off and track reality to see if they are getting closer or farther away from their dream

I don't care for majorities....to me its impressive when someone....anyone is creating what they love....statistics do little for the soul

 

[socioecologist]

Not sure if you got the point of the post? If someone writes :

anyone can get ahead in America

but the overwhelming majority cannot, does that mean they are still correct? You can say/write whatever you want, but that doesn't make it true.

The point is that the US has a very rigid class structure; regardless of how hard someone works, chances are, almost all people will end up in the same economic class as their parents (and their grandparents, and great-grandparents, etc.). That is a very powerful reality for people to deal with, and it points to some much larger issues we have yet to come to terms with in the US.

I realize that money isn't everything and that happiness is not necessarily a product of money--but try surviving (let alone transcending class boundaries) in the US without it.

 

[Verite]

Wow, such shocking news.

Even Einstein could muster the logic that those with more money and time for recreation will consume more recreational drugs.

Do you really think if poor people bought lots of coke that any of it would make it to the US?

Absolutely moronic considering the US's large appetite for drugs hasnt changed a fraction of a % for as many decades as been the war on drugs has been in full swing yet the only people getting rich from it and as a result capturing their home countries power are foreigners.

Maybe when gas hits $10 a gallon they will legalize drugs in an effort to recoup lost finances.

 

[Gypsy Nirvana]

The price of petrol/gas in the UK is now just under $10 per gallon....Diesel is now more expensive and has gone past the $10 a gallon mark....

.....but cannabis is still not legal to grow.......nor sell......the government is making record ammounts of revenue from the taxation of fuel.....

I doubt if it will be long before U.S.A. people have to pay these prices.....

 

[socioecologist]

Gypsy,

My research puts oil prices at $375 / barrel and gas at $17 / gallon in the next 60 months in the US. The major exporting nations of the world are in a bind due to rising consumption at home (subsidized) and the peak of production in their oil fields. Nasty shit to come for everyone, rich and poor. Peace from Oregon.