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Nigeria ranks low in cocaine, tobacco, cannabis use – Survey -- 7/24 |
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By Waheed Bakare |
New findings from the World Health Organisation’s World Mental Health Surveys have shown that Nigeria ranked low in the use of cocaine, tobacco, cannabis and alcohol use among 17 nations across the globe.
In other words, fewer Nigerians reported that they had used cannabis, cocaine, tobacco and alcohol in their lifetime.
The report, which was released on July 1st and published in the journal of the Public Library of Science, said while a vast majority of respondents in the Americas, Europe, Japan, and New Zealand reported lifetime use of alcohol, considerable proportions of respondents in the Middle East, Africa, and China reported using alcohol in their lifetime.
Among the 17 countries surveyed, only 17 per cent of Nigerians reported the use of alcohol in their lifetime. This is the lowest percentage by any of the countries. “Lifetime tobacco use was most common in the US (74 per cent), Lebanon (67 per cent), Mexico (60 per cent), and in some European countries (Netherlands, 58 per cent; Ukraine, 60 per cent), with by far the lowest proportions in the African countries (South Africa, 32 per cent; Nigeria, 17 per cent),” the survey stated.
The United States and New Zealand, the survey stated are the countries peopled by the highest majority of respondents who had in their lifetime used cannabis, otherwise known as marijuana. Both countries had 42 per cent of their respondents confirming that they had used cannabis in their lifetime.
While the survey also described cocaine use among respondents from countries in the Middle East, Africa (represented by Nigeria and South Africa) as “extremely low proportions,” it stated that the US had the highest number of respondents who had used cocaine at least once.
According to the survey, “The proportions of respondents who ever used cannabis were highest in the US (42 per cent) and New Zealand (42 per cent), whereas lifetime cannabis use was virtually nonexistent in the Asian countries.
“The US was an outlier in lifetime cocaine use, with 16 per cent of respondents reporting that they had tried cocaine at least once compared to 4.0 per cent – 4.3 per cent in Colombia, Mexico, Spain, and New Zealand, and extremely low proportions in countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.”
It noted that there was remarkable similarity the age use distributions for specific types of drugs among countries surveyed. It called the age of use as Age of Onset.
The survey said findings revealed that the Nigerians did not use tobacco until when they attained 21 while those who had used cannabis said they never used it until when they were 22 years. Compared to other countries, Nigerian respondents did not have early contact with tobacco and cannabis.
It stated, “The median AOO was between 16–19 y for alcohol for all countries except South Africa (20 y), and for tobacco in all countries except Nigeria (21 y) and China (20 y). The median AOO of illegal drug use was slightly older in all countries. For cannabis, median AOO was between 18–19 y, with the exception of Nigeria and Israel (both 22 y) and Lebanon (21 y). Cocaine use typically began at a slightly older age, with median AOO between 21–24 y for all countries where sufficient data were available to make an estimate.”
The survey observed that alcohol use by age 15 was far more common among European countries compared to countries from the Middle East and Africa. Nigeria, South Africa and Lebanon are the three countries whose respondents never drank alcohol by age 15.
According to the survey, “Alcohol use by age 15 y was far more common in European countries than in the Middle East and Africa. By age 21 y, the vast majority of young adults in European countries (76 per cent – 99 per cent), Japan (92 per cent), New Zealand (94 per cent), and the Americas (78 per cent – 93 per cent) had begun using alcohol; estimates were lower in the Middle East and Africa (40 per cent – 63 per cent).
“In the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, and New Zealand, 60 per cent of young people had started to drink by age 15 y. With three exceptions (South Africa, Lebanon, and Nigeria), this threshold value of 60 per cent was crossed by age 21 y in all countries studied, with especially large proportions starting to drink between ages 15 and 21 y in the Ukraine and Japan.
Nigeria, with 7 per cent, had the smallest proportion of respondents who had started using tobacco smoking by age 15. This was closely followed by Israel (9 per cent), South Africa (11 per cent) and Colombia (12 per cent).
“Data on age at first tobacco smoking were available for fewer countries; nonetheless, among those aged 22–29 y, an estimated 46 per cent of young adults in the Ukraine had started to smoke by age 15 y, and 72 per cent by age 21 y; similar estimates were obtained in the US (44 per cent and 72 per cent, respectively),” the survey added.
The research was based on interviews with 85,052 participants in 17 countries. The countries were Colombia; Mexico; United States; Belgium; France; Germany; Italy; Netherlands; Spain; Ukraine; Israel; Lebanon; Nigeria; South Africa; Japan; People’s Republic of China and New Zealand.
Sample sizes ranged from 2,372 in the Netherlands to 12,992 in New Zealand, with most of the interviews done face-to-face.
Participants were asked whether they had ever used alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, or cocaine.
The survey discovered that countries with stringent policies towards illegal drug use often had higher levels of such drug use than countries with more liberal policies. In the Netherlands – which has more liberal policies than the US – 1.9 per cent of people reported cocaine use and 19.8 percent reported cannabis use. Drug use “does not appear to be simply related to drug policy,” the findings noted.
Males were more likely than females and younger adults were more likely than older to have used all the drugs mentioned in the survey.
Higher income was related to drug use of all kinds.
Marital status was found to be related to tobacco, cannabis, and cocaine use, but not alcohol use.
People who were never married or those previously married had higher odds of lifetime cocaine and cannabis use than the currently married, but tobacco use was more likely in people who have been previously married and less likely among the never married.
The researchers said the survey was carried out because of the wide acceptance that alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug use are associated with a considerable amount of illness, disability and death.
But they equally noted that there were few high-quality data to reflect the level of the problem, especially in developing countries.
The survey will therefore “add to the understanding of the global burden of disease and should be useful to government and health organisations in developing policies to combat these problems.”
---www.punchng.com |
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