Around 147 million people, 2.5% of the world's population, use cannabis (annual prevalence), compared to 0.2% use cocaine and 0.2% use opiates. Cannabis is by far the most cultivated illicit drug, trafficked and abused. Half of all drug seizures worldwide. The geographical distribution of these seizures is also global and covers virtually every country in the world.
Some 147 million people, 2.5% of the world's population, use cannabis (annual prevalence), compared to 0.2% for cocaine and 0.2% for opiates. In the current decade, the abuse of cannabis has grown more rapidly than the abuse of cocaine and opiates. The most rapid increase in cannabis abuse since the 1960s has occurred in developed countries in North America, Western Europe and Australia. Cannabis has been increasingly linked to youth culture and the starting age is often lower than that of other drugs.
An analysis of cannabis markets shows that low prices match high levels of abuse, and vice versa. Cannabis appears to be not elastic in terms of prices in the short term, but rather elastic in the long term. While the number of cannabis users is greater than that of opioid and cocaine users, the lower prices of cannabis mean that, in economic terms, the cannabis market is much smaller than the market for opiates or cocaine. For detailed information, Health Canada developed and implemented the Canadian Cannabis Survey (CCS).
The purpose of the CCS is to obtain detailed information about the habits of people who use cannabis and behaviors related to the use of cannabis. Everywhere, those who used cannabis in the past 12 months were more likely to report seeing these messages. Reliable and credible data on business opportunities, market forecasts and the regulatory environment in major global cannabis markets. For this and other methodological reasons, the CCS may provide higher prevalence estimates of cannabis use than other Canadian population-level surveys.
Canadians were asked if they had ever driven in a vehicle driven by a person within two hours of using cannabis, and what they thought about cannabis and driving. People were asked if they felt they had access to enough reliable information about the health risks of cannabis use to make informed decisions. For example, more basic research on the central and peripheral mechanisms of the effects of cannabinoids on gastrointestinal function could improve the ability to alleviate nausea and emesis. It appears to be the result not of a reduction in consumption among men, but rather of greater consumption by women, and this has perhaps been facilitated by the introduction of a wider variety of cannabis products that attract women.
The same people were also asked their opinion about the time until it was safe to drive after using cannabis for medical purposes. This report provides a review and summary of current knowledge about cannabis use and health effects, and is likely to be relevant to policy makers, the public. This was higher than both the 14.0% reported consumption before legalization and the 17.5% reported consumption in the first few months after the enactment of the Cannabis Act. This study has several strengths, including the fact that the data were collected before the Cannabis Act was passed, right after and again after amendments to the law that allowed more diverse products to be legally produced and sold.
Twenty-five percent (25%) of people aged 25 and over reported using more cannabis, compared to 46% of people aged 16 to 19 and 40% aged 20 to 24.Canadians were asked if they had seen or heard educational campaigns, public health or safety messages about cannabis in several places since the Cannabis Act came into force. When asked when it would be safe to drive after inhaling cannabis, the five most common answers were “I don't know” (34%), 8 or more hours (21%), 3 hours to just under 5 hours (15%), 5 hours to just under 7 hours (12%) and 7 hours to just under 8 hours (6%). The social acceptability of occasional or regular consumption of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis was higher among people who reported using cannabis in the past 12 months compared to those who did not report using cannabis. .
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