As cannabis use rises in much of Europe, it has halved in the UK - new study shows

[Deleted]

Source: http://www.economist.com/news/britai...est-weeded-out

IN 2000 a report published by Europe’s drug agency (EMCDDA) found that Britain had an unusually large number of young cannabis users: they “topped the EU league”, as one British paper spun it. This year’s report, published on June 4th, showed that in the past 15 years the tables have turned. While the number of 15- to 34-year-olds using pot has risen or held steady in most countries, in England and Wales it has almost halved (see chart). Why?

One possible explanation, says Alex Stevens, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Kent, is the rise in Britain of high-strength “skunk”, which is grown domestically [ed. and more expensive], and the decline of cannabis resin, which is milder, and mostly brought in from north Africa.
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The extra potency also cuts down the ways cannabis can be used. The drug is often taken alongside others, such as ecstasy; such mixing is riskier when weed’s effects are heightened.
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The trend coincides with a decline in smoking. The most common way to take cannabis in Britain is still to mix it with tobacco, so non-smokers are less likely to take up the drug. In America, where cannabis tends to be smoked by itself, there seems to be no such link: the number of smokers has been falling since 2005, while that of cannabis users has risen.
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Young Britons are becoming generally better-behaved than their peers: nearly all intoxicants, from alcohol to cocaine, are falling out of fashion, even as they become more popular elsewhere. British cannabis has become dearer, too. A quarter-ounce (7 grams) of skunk has risen in price from £30 in 2006 (then $55) to £50 ($77). That is about two-thirds more expensive than in Spain, for instance.
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Some young people are turning to other substances. Since 2013 there has been a 25% rise in the number of new synthetic “legal highs” reported; about a third were cannabis imitators.
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Indeed, it is unlikely that the decline in cannabis use is down to anything much the government has done, or could do. Jane Mounteney at the EMCDDA notices a pattern among some large European countries: cannabis use peaks when around 20% of young adults report use in the past year, then declines. It could be that Britain got into cannabis early, and now has simply got bored with the habit.

[Gumboy]

So because pot got stronger they left pot and went to fake but legal drugs?

Just legalize that shit lol.

[Deleted]

It hasn't halved in the UK whatsoever.

People here have just become smarter at avoiding police detection.

Middle class people are growing it in huge amounts and go to great lengths to avoid being detected and police simply do not know.


My next door neighbour has built a shed around a huge tree, it is totally hidden from aerial satellite view and the smell totally masked by the fresh tree. People who smoke it NEVER smoke outside and only carry it on themselves when selling or transporting.


It's not that people in the UK smoke it less, its that they are smarter at not getting caught and thus not showing in these results.

[Deleted]

Personally I never really seen the appeal

Every stoner I met IRL or online turned out to be incredibly boring people dependent on pot for any kind of enjoyment

[Deleted]

Personally I never really seen the appeal

Every stoner I met IRL or online turned out to be incredibly boring people dependent on pot for any kind of enjoyment

Agreed. They also always go and on about it in random situations, e.g. trying to find sneaky ways to find what others have as their source(s), even when they are only on the same continent, let alone not the same country, or their last adventure doing it at the same time as something else.

It would be like a smoker discussing the last time they puffed up or even what brand they used. The worst I found are actually Americans in this regard (sorry, this trope seem true). It is like it is a part of American Millenial identity and it is expected everyone knows at least something about it and happy to chat endlessly on it, with its very own subculture, memes, anniversaries, hangouts, recognized brands, sources, stories, TV/movies, coolness to know someone on or with access to medical version, blah, blah, blah ... Never hear the end of it.

All the while, you thought you were all just playing a game or learning a language or studying something!

</rant - yeah, I'm bitter. Feels shit when you feel often excluded over something you have no interest in when you thought you were all there precisely because you share a strong interest in something>

[ParanoiD84]

They?stop generelizing not all smokers are like that and I bet you would not even know if I have just smoked or not, you must have met 14 year old kids braging about it. Some people like to drink to relax and some like to smoke to relax after a long day at work.

[Shadowmelded]

It hasn't halved in the UK whatsoever.

People here have just become smarter at avoiding police detection.

Middle class people are growing it in huge amounts and go to great lengths to avoid being detected and police simply do not know.


My next door neighbour has built a shed around a huge tree, it is totally hidden from aerial satellite view and the smell totally masked by the fresh tree. People who smoke it NEVER smoke outside and only carry it on themselves when selling or transporting.


It's not that people in the UK smoke it less, its that they are smarter at not getting caught and thus not showing in these results.

Also cops give less of a fuck about it as the days go by.

[Wildtree]

Cannabis was never big in Germany..... It's been the "on rare occasion" thing... It's hashish that's common...
Black, Blond, Red, Green, you name it.
Means, for Germany the numbers can only go up.. If they go down, it would be essentially gone lol

[Bakis]

Weed blows, xtc with ghb now thats a kicker.
/sad but true sarcasm

[Acidbaron]

"Young Britons are becoming generally better-behaved than their peers"

I am sorry but if you believe thatargument should go to popular holiday places in Europe and than dare to make to statement again with a straight face.
Also before you start with i have no sources, generalizations and so on,

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...e_FINAL_v2.pdf

Your government seems to not disagree



How was this reduction in consumption even measured? the only reason i don't dismiss it completely is that the economist is generally a good source of information unless they have also been forced to reduced to attention seeking blog posting.

[Deleted]

The first thing I thought when I read the title was: "Damn it Holland, you're artificially bloating the percentages".

[Kalis]

"Young Britons are becoming generally better-behaved than their peers: nearly all intoxicants, from alcohol to cocaine, are falling out of fashion, even as they become more popular elsewhere."

Cocaine in Britain is on the rise again, and the British are more than twice as likely as anyone else in the EU to use it.



Cannabis is usually associated with kids and students, once you graduate and get a proper job you move onto cocaine, then onto wine as you move up the ladder into management - it's the British way.

[Deleted]

Cannabis was never big in Germany..... It's been the "on rare occasion" thing...

1 in 10......
........

[Deleted]

"Young Britons are becoming generally better-behaved than their peers"

I am sorry but if you believe thatargument should go to popular holiday places in Europe and than dare to make to statement again with a straight face.

So true. Almost certainly it probably has less to do with change in attitudes, but relative cost. When alcohol or other legal vices are (much) cheaper, Brits seem to always choose that over anything else.

[apepi]

I am more interested in what Greece's numbers are.

[Kalis]

"Young Britons are becoming generally better-behaved than their peers"

I am sorry but if you believe thatargument should go to popular holiday places in Europe and than dare to make to statement again with a straight face.
Also before you start with i have no sources, generalizations and so on,

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...e_FINAL_v2.pdf

Your government seems to not disagree



How was this reduction in consumption even measured? the only reason i don't dismiss it completely is that the economist is generally a good source of information unless they have also been forced to reduced to attention seeking blog posting.

The "better-behaved" comment is in relation to drug use, not social behaviour.

[Acidbaron]

The "better-behaved" comment is in relation to drug use, not social behaviour.

I'm fairly certain their alcohol and other drug use are completely unrelated to their bad social behavior. /s

[Bakis]

So true. Almost certainly it probably has less to do with change in attitudes, but relative cost. When alcohol or other legal vices are (much) cheaper, Brits seem to always choose that over anything else.

When nightclubs for the younger segment offer drinks for 80 pence I would not blame them.

[Kalis]

I'm fairly certain their alcohol and other drug use are completely unrelated to their bad social behavior. /s

The British on holiday would consume more alcohol per day than when not on holiday, so drug and alcohol use can be going down (better-behaved in relation to drug and alcohol use) without it making any difference to their social behaviour abroad.

[Deleted]

thc can be dangerous... lots of people are in psychiatric hospitals because of thc abusus.

we should not play in our dopamin system. its like russian roulette