[angie]

the UK has overtaken Spain for Cocaine use, so good on Spain for that.

Maybe it’s the UK Bankers who are taking this stuff, spending their big bonuses again. 🙂

[Anonymous]

Here’s something for you that you don’t hear too many politicians in either the UK or Spain talking about.

In my home country, the Netherlands, soft drug purchase and usage is completely legal.
It also happens to have the lowest hard drug addiction rate of any OECD country. (OECD figures)

Personally, I happen to think the two factors are related. That the rest of the Western world tends to bury its head in the sand when trying to deal with the issue of drugs and that this only exacerbates the problem.

I could also go on about how NL has the lowest teenage pregnancy rate of any EU country (EU figures) and that this stems from a very open and frank attitude towards sex and its education. That may however be straying away from the subject. 😀

[Anonymous]

Probably more to do with the UK have nearly double the population, so not surprising. Could also say people in the UK have disposable income….!

Ian

[angie]

Ian, I think the findings are based on individual useage, but not sure. 😕

[Anonymous]

It is based on percentage of the population. You can find the European Drug Agency report here:

http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/online/annual-report/2010

It is actually a much more complex picture than the headlines suggest. The UK does indeed top the ‘use in a lifetime’ list for cocaine and amphetamines. Denmark tops the list for cannabis and the Czech Republic takes the gong for ecstasy. However if you look at the figures for the last year, which is probably a more accurate picture of the current situation, the UK doesn’t register top of any of the lists.

[Anonymous]

The Dutch are very practical & pragmatic people when ever it comes to sensitive issues i.e drugs, prositition.

[Author]

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