On June 26th the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its annual World Drug Report. This report provides a detailed global picture of drug use prevalence, summarising patterns and trends of illicit drug production, trafficking and use around the world as well as detailing national data. This year's report shows that drug use prevalence has remained stable with 246 million people or 5.2% of the world's population aged 15-64 having used an illicit drug in 2013. One out of ten or around 27 million people suffer from drug-related problems such as dependency or drug use disorders. Men are three times more likely to use marijuana, cocaine and amphetamines than women whereas women are more likely to misuse prescription drugs. The most widely used illicit drug continues to be marijuana with an estimated 181.8 million users worldwide and its use continues to be high in West and Central Africa, Western and Central Europe, North America and Oceania. The use of cocaine has been on decline (17 million) whereas global use of opioids has remained fairly stable (32.4 million).
Browse the World Drug Report to learn more about global trends of illicit drug production, trafficking and consumption.
Last month the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) released its annual report on drug use in Europe. The report sheds light on the most pressing issues in Europe's ever-changing drug market. The most widely used illicit drug continues to be cannabis with an estimated 11.7% of young adults aged 15 to 34 having used cannabis in the past year. The use of marijuana varies considerably among regions. While cannabis use has been on decline in Germany, Spain and the UK, it has been on the rise in Bulgaria, France and Scandinavia. Numbers related to opioid use (estimated at around 1.3 million) and treatment have considerably dropped across Europe in recent years. The pace of emergence of new psychoactive substances continues to be worrisome. New drugs are detected at an estimated rate of two per week and 101 new substances were reported last year. Many of the 450 new psychoactive substances that are monitored by the EU Early Warning System (EWS) are sold via the Internet on more than 650 websites to European consumers.
Browse the European Drug Report 2015 to learn more about trends and patterns in the European drug market.
The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) has recently released a report that provides an overview of the latest research on how cannabis affects young people's brain and behaviour. Cannabis is the most commonly used drug among Canadian youth aged 15–24 and many young people view cannabis to be a natural and safe substance. What youth might not know is that regular cannabis use can seriously disrupt the developing brain and is related to:
Poor academic performance and deficits in attention and memory
Significantly increased risk of motor vehicle collisions
Experiencing psychotic symptoms and developing schizophrenia
Developing a cannabis use disorder
The report outlines the behavioural and mental health effects of cannabis use, whether the drug is addictive and the treatments that exist for cannabis use disorder. To make informed decisions about cannabis use, youth and their support systems need to be aware of both the neurological and behavioural effects of cannabis.
Check out the report in short or the full report to learn more about how and why cannabis affects youth’s cognition, behaviour, mental health and driving abilities.
The legalisation of the use of recreational marijuana is making it increasingly difficult for parents to talk to their kids about drug use. Taking this new landscape into consideration Partnership for Drug-Free Kids has released a new resource that gives parents examples of how to start the conversation, answering teen’s questions about marijuana, and what not to say.
The new kit provides advice such as:
Although marijuana is legal in some states, it does not change the fact that it is a mind-altering substance which can be harmful for the still-developing teen brain.
Parents should engage their kids in conversation, instead of simply lecturing them. This shows a parent’s concern and promotes collaboration in thinking through healthy alternatives, like music, reading or sports.
To answer the difficult question, “But it’s legal in some states; why would they make something legal that could hurt me?” a parent could use alcohol or cigarette smoking as examples, say something along the lines of “Let’s look at alcohol; it’s legal, but causes damage, including drunk driving, car accidents and other behaviour that leads to jail time. Alcohol can also cause major health problems, including liver problems and car accidents,” showing them that a substance being legal does not mean that it is harmless.
Parents should also be aware of using language that could be shaming as it can accelerate marijuana use in teens who are already using it.
This new kit provides parents with the skills they need to handle any conversation and any questions their kids might have regarding marijuana use. Any parent can have free access to this resource.
A recent study by Northwestern University has shown that teens who smoked marijuana daily for about three years have an abnormally shaped hippocampus and perform poorly on long-term memory tasks. The hippocampus is an area of the brain that is important for long-term memory, remembering autobiographical or life events, and for memory processes, such as the ones “we use every day to solve common problems and to sustain our relationships with friends and family,” said lead researcher John Csernansky. The study analysed the brains of a total of 97 subjects in their early twenties who started using marijuana daily between the ages of 16 to 17 for about three years and did not abuse any other drugs. Brain mapping tools were used to examine the structure of the hippocampus and narrative memory tests were used in order to determine the effect on the subject’s memory. Subjects had to listen to a series of stories for about a minute and were later asked to recall as much content as possible.
The results showed that there is a close correlation between an abnormally shaped hippocampus and poor long-term memory. “The findings suggest that regions related to memory may be more susceptible to the effects of the drug the longer the abuse occurs.” Specifically, the longer individuals chronically used marijuana, the more abnormal the shape of their hippocampus was. Also, young adults who used marijuana as teens performed about 18% worse on long-term memory tests compared to teens that had never used marijuana.
El cannabis es una sustancia que ha despertado durante mucho tiempo una notable atención en el régimen internacional de fiscalización de drogas, que actualmente se basa en la Convención Única de 1961 sobre Estupefacientes.Esta publicación es una iniciativa conjunta del Transnational Institute de Ámsterdam y el Observatorio Global de Políticas de Drogas de la Universidad de Swansea.
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) released its annual report on drug use in Europe in May 2014. The most concerning findings were related to the use of new psychoactive substances, also known as ‘legal highs’. As part of the report, the EMCDDA identified more than 650 websites that sell ‘legal highs’ to Europeans. While the use of ‘legal highs’ is on the rise, numbers related to opioid use, treatment, seizures and deaths have dropped considerably across Europe in recent years.