ISSUES
: Drugs
Chapter 1: Drug issues
6
The Global Drug Survey 2015 findings
An overview of our key findings.
Dr Adam R Winstock, Founder Director GDS
Well, first, just how
generous were people
with their time?
We estimate that over the duration
of the study (Nov–Dec 2014) over
100,000 people spent in excess of:
Ö
Ö
four million minutes, or
Ö
Ö
67,000 hours, or
Ö
Ö
2,800 days, or
Ö
Ö
400 weeks, or
Ö
Ö
7.5 years sharing their drug use
experiences with us.
So a HUGE thanks to you all. GDS
does not exist without you.
I also want to acknowledge the
unbelievable help that all our
partners and the academic network
and harm reduction groups around
the world provide with revising
and translating the survey then
working so closely with all our
media partners. In particular, I want
to acknowledge the vital role that
Dr Jason Ferris, our chief biostats
man, has provided with the analysis
and production of reports. Thanks
mate.
Well, working our way from the more
common to less commonly used
drugs these are some of interesting
things we found out
Alcohol
Ireland’s reputation for heavy
drinking is well deserved. Not
only did Ireland have higher rates
of drinkers at risk of dependence
(AUDIT score of 20 or more), they
report needing to drink more alcohol
than almost any other country to get
as drunk as they would want to be
but they also had the highest rates
of getting more drunk more often
than they wanted to, thinking their
doctor would tell them to drink less,
attending A&E after drinking more
often and perhaps thankfully the
highest proportion of drinkers who
want to drink less in the coming
year.
But the Irish stereotype aside
(Australia, The Netherlands, UK and
NZ you can’t smile) I was struck by
two things.
There is NOT a fine line between
getting as drunk as you would want
get and being more drunk than you
want. It’s about a 30% line. Now,
not only is the mean amount of
alcohol about 90gm for women and
120gm for men – about five times
above what the WHO advise as the
maximum amount to drink in a day.
So with 20-25% of people on
average saying they were getting
more drunk more often than they
wanted to (‘tippled’ at least monthly)
here is my advice. When you get to
the place you feel as intoxicated
with alcohol as you want to, SLOW
your drinking down. The tipping
point for many people is just one or
two drinks, so if you want to have a
better, cheaper healthier night, just
slow down and drink a little less.
Want some advice, go to www.
drinksmeter.com or get it free on
the app stores.
The other thing I learned is how
different things motivate different
groups to change their drinking,
with social embarrassment being a
huge motivator for many, especially
the Germans, Swiss, Austrians and
the Aussies. If you want to see how
much of an ARSE (stands for Alcohol
Related Social Embarrassment
score) you are when you drink try
the GSS One Too Many test at
Tobacco
For tobacco we learned that far to
many cannabis smokers continue to
mix their weed/resin with tobacco
and that we should strive to be
like Americans or the Kiwis. And
for all the fears over e-cigarettes
while many smokers have tried
them the proportion who go on to
become daily users is very small,
though last year prevalence in
many countries is increasing. More
e-ciggie companies for the tobacco
companies to buy I guess.
Cannabis
And while high-potency herbal
cannabis dominates the world
market and carries the greatest
risk of harms it seems other types
can also land you in the emergency
department as well.
Sadly the uptake of vapourisers by
the cannabis – using community is
still in its infancy – lots of lungs to
be saved from harm out there.
While
high-potency
cannabis
remains dominant we learned that
butane hash oil (BHO) is starting to
nudge its way into the cannabis–
using community with over 2,500
people sharing their thoughts on
this new form of cannabis. Faster,
stronger and possibly with higher
risks of swifter development of
tolerance and withdrawal it’s too
early to pass judgement. It does
allow for other methods of use to be
adopted however, as shown below,
and this might be a good thing.
Hopefully more balanced BHO oils
will appear and will encourage the
use of vape pens so the typical
trajectory of increased potency
leading to increased problematic
use and dependence can be
exchanged for greater control and
harm reduction. For this to be a
reality the marijuana industry needs
to get on board and provide an index
to inform customers of risks and
how to avoid them. And given one in
four reported making BHO at home,
some occupational health and
safety advice on choice of solvent,
the need for good ventilation and
to avoid unsightly explosions are
probably needed. GDS will launch
the world’s first ever safer drug use
limits – starting with the cannabis
guidelines on 17 June.
Synthetic cannabis
But while BHO may be the new
‘natural kid on the block’, GDS’s
work on synthetic cannabinoids
