Study: How Pot Became An American Pastime

The Netherlands, with its permissive marijuana laws, may be known as the cannabis capital of the world. But a survey published this month in PLoS Medicine, a journal of the Public Library of Science, suggests that the Dutch don't actually experiment with pot as much as one would expect. Despite tougher drug policies in this country, Americans were twice as likely to have tried marijuana than the Dutch, according to the survey. In fact, Americans were more likely to have tried marijuana or cocaine than people in any of the 16 other countries, including France, Spain, South Africa, Mexico and Colombia, that the survey covered.

Researchers found that 42% of people surveyed in the United States had tried marijuana at least once, and 16% had tried cocaine. About 20% of residents surveyed in the Netherlands, by contrast, reported having tried pot; in Asian countries, such as Japan and China, marijuana use was virtually "non-existent," the study found. New Zealand was the only other country to claim roughly the same percentage of pot smokers as the U.S., but no other nation came close to the proportion of Americans who reported trying cocaine.

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Comments

[RTIII]

The drug war is the primary foundational element of our police state. Without it, there would be a lot less need for police...
.

[OttoMann]

The Dutch results show that legalizing something doesn't equate to creating new users. In other words, if the US were to legalize weed, we're not going to suddenly have all these new users. But fear is fear, irrationality is irrationality, and we continue to have laws that have no grounding in reality or reason.

[GBartrem]

The USA can make more money keeping pot illegal than it can legalizing it.... umm so the old folks in our govt think anyways.

[blueinannarbor]

"Legalize it,
Don't criticize it." Bob Marley.

[MajorKong]

A lot of pot gets grown in the southern part of Ohio, which is part of Appalachia. There's no economy down there to speak of, and a lot of people are either growing pot or cooking meth to get by.

[paulbikes]

Ive been through there plenty, and while its not as severe as you imply, its still really bad.

[NoSillyName]

"Newest"?

[tressie22]

a country that created the hardees monster burger, rush limbaugh, george dubya and briges to nowhere NEEDS some recreational drug use. it takes everything in me not to get high to get high...and i don't even do drugs!

[framante]

Those who would outlaw pot and hemp are know-nothings who would better spend their time trying to hold up the rain (or should I more aptly say trying to stop the grass from growing). Pot and hemp have been with us a long time and are relatively innocuous substances with many benefits, hemp especially. Even pot is a wonderful substance in many ways including promoting socializing without all the harm that alcohol causes. It boggles the mind how the United States and many other countries have successfully demonized such relatively harmless products. Yes, I know, most hard drug users began with pot. Yes, and most hard drug users wore sweaters in the wintertime.

[justobserve]

And non-users also wore sweaters in wintertime. Pot and hard drugs are related, one leads to the other, like the cold leads to wearing sweater but drugs and sweaters are unrelated.

[framante]

What is your basis for saying pot and hard drugs are related -- the fact that they give pleasure? So what? Where is the data that shows one leads to the other? What percentage of pot users go on to hard drugs? That is the pertinent question.

Moreover, I venture that if drugs were legalized tomorrow, very little would change. Nobody is going to start using drugs just because they become legal. I wouldn't. Would you? Anybody who wants to use drugs is already using them, laws or no laws.

[darthdarcy]

What if you had a sweater made of drugs and forgot to wear it caught cold an died..

See what I mean...jus­tobserve..­?

Would that be a non drug related death...?

[paulbikes]

Chug Chug Chug CHUG your kool aide.

[MajorKong]

Arguably most hard drug users started with tobacco.

[70sFez]

I must say that there are no long term ill effects of partaking in the pleasure of one of the worlds oldest and most of the keys on my keyboard seem to be moving up and down and my fingers are kinda feeling weird like they were dipped in peanut butter, but not the crunchy stuff because I like to spread the cards out before I do a trick and when I ask someone to pick a card they usually make a judgment about how I have cleaned the windows without using newspaper because paper towels leave little specks that float across the sky with such glittery brilliance that I feel like I am in a Disney movie about a boy who loses his dog and then goes on a journey and comes across some bums cooking beans in a POT! Okay man, let me start again, I must say that there are no long term ill effects of partaking in the pleasure of one of the worlds oldest and most ...

[70sFez]

Hey man, I'm offended by your comment, I think, but I like the story about the boy and his dog. Is it still playing in the theaters?

By the way, I like your name. I have the same one. name that is, not dog. Or is that GOD?

[70sFez]

oi dpoiehgoipr rtpoi mwmtopo yjhsyt qoii wq... sorry, the peanut butter on my fingers was interfering with my typing. I forgot to mention that I , um, well, let's see, that is, uh, hey, what time does the movie start man?

[nyquist27]

I guess those researchers never went to Dali, CN

[Topfeeder]

Nacho Cheeese Doritos and Hostess Sno-Balls pretty much sums up this article for me.

[Stagehnd1]

Um...umm..­.I forgot what I was going to say...

[zizyphus]

In spite of all the lies and propaganda, in spite of arrest, asset forfeiture, imprisonment, and all the scare tactics that they have brought to bear, the War on Pot is an absolute and abject failure. Pot is so much a part of mainstream America. There are now third and fourth generation cannabinistas who valiantly soldier on, growing the herb and distributing it to the millions who enjoy it every day.

Legitimizing pot and hemp is the one of the things that could turn our economy around.

[paulbikes]

I agree.

[RIPHRC]

The revenue that could be generated by legalizing it and taxing it would be staggering. Not to mention the money saved in resources wasted trying to fight it and and the much needed relief on the penal system. We are talking BILLIONS & BILLIONS of dollars. The only people that benefit from it being illegal are the dealers and traffickers. Alcohol is responsible for so many more problems. For example, too many time you've heard the story of the person that got drunk and killed their spouse, if that same person were a stoner, you'd hear the story of the person that got stoned and forgot to kill thier spouse...

[TRYKER]

The only people that benefit from it being illegal are the dealers and trafficker­s."

Not the only people...P­rison Industries benefit the most, lobbying for more and more laws and harsher penalties to keep their prisons full and their Wall Street bottom lines growing every quarter.
And, the Republicans benefit at every election, because felons can't vote even if they have paid "their debt to society" (barf).

[tressie22]

true. and for profit prisons, in particular, lobby for this kind of inane sentencing. even LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS have spoken out against the ridiculous war on drugs. it is, as usual, all about the money. if someone thinks drug laws are designed to protect citizens they haven't called 911 to report their vehicle stolen by a crackhead or dealer lately. The calls go to a Call Center where you are placed on hold. No one comes and does the CSI dealio. You're asked to call back if you find out anything and then you get a nifty report number to give to the insurance company who holds your reimbursement - the one you've paid for 30 times over since you were forced to buy a policy upteenth years ago - until after it has been determined that you haven't just misplaced your car in someone else's garage.

I wish I were making this up, but I'm not that good.

[samuelpablo]

What? Cough, cough.