Trends UN World Drug Report

[enquirewithin]

Some 200 million people, or 5 percent of the global population age 15-64, have used illicit drugs at least once in the last 12 months. Among this population are people from almost every country on earth. More people are involved in the production and trafficking of illicit drugs and still more are touched by the devastating social and economic costs of this problem. Partially a consequence of its pervasiveness and partially a consequence of the illicit and hidden nature of the problem, reliable analysis and statistics on the production, trafficking and use of illicit drugs are rare.

The World Drug Report 2006 endeavours to fill this gap. It provides one of the most comprehensive overviews of illicit drug trends at the international level. In addition, it presents a special thematic chapter on cannabis, by far the most widely produced, trafficked and used drug in the world. The analysis of trends, some going back 10 years or more, is presented in Volume 1. Detailed statistics are presented in Volume 2. Taken together, these volumes provide the most up-to-date view of today's illicit drug situation.

Read more:

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/world_drug_report.html

The parts about cannabis are the least credible. The repoert claims (you have read this elsewhere) that the new 'skunk' makes cannabis some kind of dangerous addictive drug, whereas the old grass and presumably cannabis resin, which the report admits has been around for over a thousand years, was relativley harmless.

They claim that Dutch 'skunk' THC levels reached 20% in 2003/4 and then dropped to 18% in 2004/5 (!). Good cannabis resin has had THC levels of 20-25% for a very long time. This is politics not science-- the UN bowing to US prsessure as usual.

Even more telling, tobacco claims 25 times as many lives as illicit drug abuse.

They think this is a justification for prohibition, yet they admit cannabis does not cause deaths.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good article

[Nature Boy]

Addictive skunk my ass. SWIM finds that when he has skunk that he smokes a lot less because he doesn't need that much to get high. Wouldn't that be the opposite of addiction? I'm sure anyone who knows anything about pot would agree. And even if the old grass and cannabis resin are fine in their eyes now (so much safer than that "evil" skunk), how come they're not thinking of legalizing them then? Bloody hypocritical circus!

[The Doors]

Originally Posted by enquirewithin

They think this is a justification for prohibition, yet they admit cannabis does not cause deaths.

Ironic isn't it? Alcohol and tobacco are both known to have had deaths directly pointed towards the use of those two substances, but they sublimingly admit that weed has never killed anyone.

Originally Posted by Nature Boy

Wouldn't that be the opposite of addiction? I'm sure anyone who knows anything about pot would agree.

SWIM is a daily pot smoker, and him and his friends usually stop smoking when they start feeling pretty good. They don't always need more to get higher, because for SWIM, when he's at a certain level on weed, it doesn't get much higher no matter how much he smokes. So to anyone who doesn't like to just waste weed for no reason, usually they just smoking.

[adzket]

swim does not know one mj smoker who would say there where an addict. but most if not all smoke it every day. all day in some situations and get moody if they don't have it or can't get on with things. this behaviour with any substance would mean addiction. is it just because it is seen as being really acceptable to smoke pot all day much the same as drinking alcohol, cause allot of people with alcohol problems don't admit it either. What’s your opinion?

[The Doors]

Originally Posted by adzket

swim does not know one mj smoker who would say there where an addict. but most if not all smoke it every day. all day in some situations and get moody if they don't have it or can't get on with things. this behaviour with any substance would mean addiction. is it just because it is seen as being really acceptable to smoke pot all day much the same as drinking alcohol, cause allot of people with alcohol problems don't admit it either. What’s your opinion?

I think that pot becomes addicting once the user makes it into a habit. Therefore the addiction begins as a psychological one. Everything can become addicting if not done responsibly, weed is no different to that even though it's got no physical addicting attributes.