English-speaking countries love pot: People in 26 countries were asked if they had ever tried marijuana (nationmaster.com). English-speaking countries came out on top, while sober Japan was WAY below everyone else. (Keep in mind that one reason the numbers are low is that a significant proportion of the samples are old people who grew up before the 60s). Interesting that Scandanavians love to drink but avoid drugs. And with a name like marijuana, only 1.3% of Mexicans ever tried the stuff? Strange. This is evidence that the U.S. is a bad influence on Mexicans: in an earlier post of mine, 9% of Mexican-American teens smoke pot at least weekly, and other surveys indicate that they use drugs more than whites or blacks.
Percent 15 and over who ever tried marijuana:
New Zealand 22.2
Australia 17.9
United States 12.3
United Kingdom 9.0
Switzerland 8.5
Ireland 7.9
Spain 7.6
Canada 7.4
Weighted average 5.8
Netherlands 5.2
Belgium 5.0
France 4.7
Italy 4.6
Greece 4.4
Germany 4.1
Denmark 4.0
Norway 3.8
Portugal 3.7
Czech Republic 3.6
Poland 3.4
Austria 3.0
Finland 2.5
Luxembourg 1.9
Hungary 1.2
Mexico 1.3
Sweden 1.0
Japan 0.05
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If you include second hand smoke then the Netherlands would have been about 100%.
ReplyDeleteMexican Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz once wrote the following: A Mexican never tells the truth when he can tell a lie. It's in his book The Labyrinth of Solitude.
ReplyDeleteMay I suggest checking drug use versus number of friends? Drug use is learned socially. The more friends one has, the more one is given the opportunity to experiment.
ReplyDeleteOr drug use versus wordsum (IQ proxy)...
Now survey various other substances. Japan has had periods of amphetamine abuse (not necessarily methamphetamine) going back to the 1950s.
ReplyDeleteAlso note that in some parts of the world, cannabis is normally consumed as hashish, rather than marijuana. Depending on how the survey was conducted, this may have skewed the results.