U. S. Tops in Substance Abuse

(July 2, 2008) - Americans are more likely to smoke, drink, use marijuana and cocaine than people from just about any place else in the world. A survey conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) research consortium found that the United States had among the highest lifetime rates of tobacco and alcohol use and led in the proportion of participants reporting cannabis (marijuana) or cocaine use at least once during their lifetime. (Read about "Quit Smoking" "Alcoholism" "Talking About Drug Abuse")

The study, led by Dr. Louisa Degenhardt, looked at patterns in the use of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and cocaine in 17 countries representing all six WHO regions (the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania). The study, funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), is published in the open access journal PLoS Medicine.

"These findings add to our understanding of substance abuse world-wide, and suggest that drug use is still a major problem in this country, pointing to the need for more effective prevention interventions," said Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, National Institutes of Health director.

"A survey of lifetime use does not provide the entire picture; however, because it does not reflect current use or trends over time," said Dr. Nora D. Volkow, NIDA director, sounding a note of caution. "For example, although lifetime use of tobacco was reported by this study to be 74 percent in the U.S., current use has been documented at approximately 30 percent. Moreover, NIDA's Monitoring the Future survey has been consistently reporting a decrease in the past year use of illicit drugs over the past decade, so this survey may reflect a longer history of drug use in certain countries relative to others, but not necessarily current trends."

Lifetime tobacco use was most common in the United States (74 percent), Lebanon (67 percent) Mexico and the Ukraine (60 and 61 percent), followed by the Netherlands (58 percent.)