United States Ranks First in Lifetime Use of Three Drugs
The proportion of people in the United States who have used cocaine at some time during their lives is higher—by a factor of four—than in 16 other nations surveyed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The United States also leads in lifetime use of cannabis and tobacco. NIDA scientists suggest that the high U.S. rates are, in part, artifacts of drug epidemics of the 1970s and 1980s, and they note that U.S. drug use rates are now lower. Between 2001 and 2006, WHO researchers asked 54,069 people about their lifetime exposure to cocaine, cannabis, tobacco, and alcohol. The survey is the first