Using Drugs in Canada
Today we want to talk about using drugs in Canada. Alcohol and tobacco are the most widely used psychoactive drugs in Canada. these two cause by far the greatest number of harms and costs to the population. The most widely used illicit drug is marijuana which causes relatively few harms for its level of use. most of the direct harms from licit and illicit drugs , occur in high-risk populations such as :
- Injectors
- Street youth
- The inner- city poor
- Natives
There are many kind of drugs , such as :
- Alcohol
- Tobacco
- Licit Dygs
- Illicit Drugs
Drug use percentage
According to the Canadian Alcohol and Other Drug Survey , 72% of women and men aged 15 years and older (about 16.5 million Canadians) report drinking alcohol in the past 12 months. Approximately one quarter of current drinkers drink less than once per month.
5% drink on a daily basis. the rest fall somewhere in between. Young adults, males and those with higher incomes drink more than other Canadians.
27% of Canadians aged 15 and over reported current smoking in the 1994 survey. 58.6% of smokers smoke between 11 and 25 cigarettes daily. 7.3% smoke more than 25 cigarettes daily. Younger age groups report the highest levels of current smoking :
- 18 – 19. 29%,
- 20 – 24. 37%
As you know , it is not possible to deal with legal and illegal drugs in a totally separate manner. The drug reporting systems and the harms to individuals and society make such a separation unrealistic. For example, physicians merge the diagnostic classifications for licit and illicit drugs side effects. In addition, the diversion of licit drugs into illicit markets plays a key role in drug-related harms.
Sales of prescription drugs are not monitored on a national basis. in addition , information about illicit drugs is limited to reports of :
- Drug seizures
- Enforcement activities
- Durveys
24% of Canadians have used one or more of the illegal drugs. for example :
- Cannabis
- Cocaine
- LSD
- Speed or Amphetamines
- Heroin
According to a report , 30% of males having used these. the percentage for females is 18%.
Cannabis
Cannabis/marijuana is the most widely used drug in Canada. over 23% of Canadians report having used cannabis.
Cocaine
The percentage of Canadians reporting that they have ever used cocaine is under 4%, which is only slightly different from 3.5% in the 1989 survey. The number of current users has dropped to 0.7% of the population.
LSD, Speed and Heroin
The proportion of Canadians who have used these kinds at least once in their lives has risen to 16%.
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