USA has highest drug Al use

[gelgit]

From USA TODAY.....Why?? Any body have any thoughts on this? I thought Russia held the record for most vodka consumed per person? I guess if you add in coke and pot the stats change. What about the horrible punishments in places like Singapore and Saudi Arabia??


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.

[beatle]

USA has highest drug Al use

My first thought is, how was this measured? If we are discussing illegal drugs, what are the measurements based on? The truthfulness of respondents? If so, then maybe American drug-users are just the most honest in the world.

Also, regarding measurements, many countries have different ways of compiling their statistics. In many European countries, for example, the per-capita alcohol consumption is based on official alcohol sales per-capita, but the alcohol sold in many countries is so highly taxed that most alcohol consumed is illegally imported, or of the home-made variety (and thus not part of the statistics).

Yeh, but still, I'm not surprised. The U.S. always grabs first place.