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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- New research reveals despite strong drug policies, the United States has the highest levels of cocaine and cannabis use among countries surveyed.
The study was based on the World Health Organizations Composite International Diagnostic Interview and included data from 17 countries worldwide. Researchers found that 16.2 percent of people in the U.S. had used cocaine in their lifetime, a level drastically higher than any other country (the country with the next highest level was New Zealand where 4.3 percent of people had used cocaine in their lifetime). Cannabis use was also highest in the U.S. with 42.4 percent of people using it sometime in their lifetime.
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The data also revealed some socioeconomic trends associated with drug use. Males were more likely than females to have used all drug types, younger adults were more likely than older adults to have used all drug types and higher income was related to all types of drug use.
Drug use does not appear to be simply related to drug policy, study authors were quoted as saying. Since countries with more stringent policies towards illegal drug use did not have lower levels of such drug use than countries with more liberal policies.
In the Netherlands, a country with more liberal illegal drug policies than the U.S., only 1.9 percent of people had used cocaine and 19.8 percent had used cannabis.
SOURCE: PloS Medicine, published online June 30, 2008
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