A study published Friday in a British medical journal may have finally uncovered the secret behind Australia’s laid-back lifestyle, and it turns out to be more than just sun and surf: The denizens Down Under, it turns out, consume more marijuana than any other people on the planet…
The study’s co-authors…reported that as much as 15 percent of the populations of Australia and New Zealand between the ages of 15 and 64 had used some form of marijuana in 2009…
The Americas, by comparison, clocked in at 7 percent, although North America batted above the neighborhood average with nearly 11 percent of its population partaking. Asia demonstrated the lowest global marijuana use patterns at no more than 2.5 percent, the study said, although difficulties in obtaining accurate data in less developed countries were cited as one possible reason for the low figures.
Wayne Hall blamed both the ubiquity of the drug — Australia and New Zealand have no shortage of remote rural areas where policing is difficult and the plant grows like, well, a weed — and cultural mores that place the consumption of intoxicants at the center of social life…“Just look at the way we take alcohol as an integral part of everyday life. I think a lot of young people see cannabis in the same way that we see alcohol: as no big deal, as a drug just to use to have a good time,” he said.
Stepping back for a global perspective, the study found that marijuana was the world’s most widely consumed illicit drug, with anywhere from 125 million to 203 million people partaking annually…
Still, despite marijuana’s significantly outpacing other illicit drugs in terms of the volume of use, the study found that it was the least likely of all illicit drugs to cause death. Additionally, barely 1 percent of deaths in Australia annually can be attributed to illegal drugs, the report said, compared with almost 12 percent from tobacco use.
Way too reasonable – and advocates for science, reason and just plain horse-sense don’t have a lobbying army to match the beer barons and morality pimps who don’t want competition from something you could grow next to your living-room aspidistra.
I know there was something important Rick Perry said about this – but, I, erm, can’t remember what it was.
I live the way these articles are cherry-picked to support a bias.
Australia and neighboring New Zealand topped the lists globally for consumption of both marijuana AND amphetamines….
Despite the high figures in the report, he said, the rate of marijuana use in Australia has actually been dropping “steadily for the better part of a decade.”
But the findings in the report most likely to cause concern to the Australian government were those relating to the use of amphetamines, and particularly methamphetamine, which has become a major public health concern over the past two decades.
Reading the above the report says that people are forgoing marijuana and using more meth.
Which is not what the report says. Of course. But, sophomoric exercises keep weedheads amused.
And anal Republicans.
Exactly. It’s the same reason you’ll never be able to buy a tomato at the grocery store– they’re too easy to grow yourself.
Grocery stores sell “tomatoes” with the extra thick skin that allows mechanical harvesting and packaging.
You can only buy tomaccos in Australia.
Wonderful – don’t fix what is not broken!
Kidding aside, the data reflects a willingness to report usage to health authorities, not necessarily a higher than normal drug habit in the population.
Let’s just stop the BS and say it as it is.
Marijuana was criminalized because of the threat to the then starting oil industry.
Why we don’t also make grapevines illegal? After all, you can grow grapes, make wine and get intoxicated.
Because with grapevines you CANNOT make fuel (or not as efficiently as cannabis), therefore there is no threat to the oil industry.
We will go down in history as the society who made it immoral and criminal the use of …. a weed!
And timber for paper and nylon for rope. Willy Hurst and the DuPont family are complicit.
“as much as 15 percent of the populations of Australia and New Zealand”
two points.
1) Surprise! Australia and New Zealand are different nations. Did they also combine France and Spain into one geo area? How about Finland and Russia?
2) Can’t speak for New Zealand but 15% sounds low for Oz. Wanna get high without being in possession? Walk down the street in Fremantle on the west coast any evening just after the nightly off shore breeze stops.On the east coast, my sis-in-law(ex) says she gets tired of smelling it on the beach and, trust me, she and her circle of friends use it plenty at home.
Okay THREE points) Personally, I have no objection to outlawing ‘commercial’ pot production. If I can make all the corn liquor I want for personal use, why can’t I grow any herbs I want? In any case, I feel the drug should be outlawed only after more dangerous and easily obtained drugs are banned, i.e. tobacco and alcohol.
You can make your own liquor?
That’s highly illegal in the USA.
No, it’s not. You need a federal permit and have to account for your production. I know three people who make their own bourbon or corn liquor. No real problem getting the permits. If you want to SELL it, that’s a different matter altogether. And it seems to me they are limited in the amount they are permitted to produce. A few gallons a year, I think. That’s more bourbon than even Bobbo drinks!
I don’t believe you even need a permit to ferment your own beer/wine. Only if you are going to distill alcohol.
I don’t know anyone that has not tried marijuana at least one time.
Except for me, of course.
Did you inhale?
Hmm let’s see.
Australia has humans.
Humans are primates.
Primates are animals.
Animals often ingest herbs and fermented fruits for their dopamine effects.
See nothing out of the ordinary here.
Just more dumb animals doing things because they want to.
Cursor_
There is nothing else to do in Oz except smoke and make American movies. Ask J. Edgar.
I’ve got an ex-girlfriend in Queensland who could change your mind.
Thanks Animby, makes sense, but i cant help feel that in doing so they would be admitting the benefit and people would either soon start to question its illegality and or start growing their own if the patentable version was more expensive than growing it yourself. which likely it would be.
as an edible its very easy to process once grown. it is also possible that synthetic products may not have the synergistic effects that the whole complete natural plant does.
understandably in an ideal world they would want to help people above making profits, but we don’t live in that world, if we did they (not doctors but board members, shills and policy makers) would sell more cures and not just treatments. but maybe i’m just crazy because i don’t trust the corporate machine, however I prefer that to status quo ‘sanity’ 🙂
and as to having to become farmers on a large scale, have they not heard of outsourcing? like how we outsource the poppy trade to the army to create jobs? or was that to keep it under wraps? either way im sure they would not have to grow it them selves if the quality was able to be consistent. but more profit if they do tho..
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