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70,000 Kiwis get stoned daily - study

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70,000 Kiwis get stoned daily - study

3News NZ

Marijuana is used daily by 2.2 percent of the total survey sample (file)

Marijuana is used daily by 2.2 percent of the total survey sample (file)

By Ally Mullord

A new ‘drug-driving’ road safety campaign has put drug use under the spotlight, and now a new poll says 70,000 New Zealanders use marijuana daily.

The Horizon Research poll, which was weighted to represent the adult population at the 2006 census, showed around 1.1 million Kiwis have tried marijuana once in their lives. In all, 540,000 New Zealanders use marijuana each year.

The survey included a subset of business decision-makers, who are slightly more likely to have tried marijuana than the rest of the adult population and twice as likely to have tried cocaine.  

Overall, fewer decision-makers have used marijuana in the last year – indicating that they are more likely to try the drug, but not continue to use it over time.

Forty-four percent of all respondents said they had never used marijuana, and 34.5 percent have only used it once. 

Marijuana is used daily by 2.2 percent of the total survey sample, but was only 0.6 percent among the business decision-makers.

The results equate to numbers from an international study that made headlines earlier this month when it revealed that Australia and New Zealand topped the charts for marijuana use.

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Comments

19/01/2012 10:41:27 p.m.

Alfred Rosenberg wrote:

WP, it sounds like cannabis was the least of your sons problems. Cannabis activates the same chemical pathways in the brain as chocolate, yet you never hear chocolate getting the blame for psychiatric disorders. I highly doubt your son's narcissistic personality disorder and cluster B personality had anything to do with cannabis. Not a single study says that. And if you believe in homeopathy, that maybe explains where he got his delusional thinking from - his genes. There is absolutely nothing homeopathic that produces the same or even similar effects to cannabis, or indeed any effects at all beyond placebo. If you put a single aspirin tablet into lake Taupo, a glass of water from it would have stronger anti-inflammatory effects than a whole bottle of homeopathic anti-inflammatory. There are no studies that equate any kind of brain damage with cannabis, in fact quite the opposite, it actually protects the brain cells in stroke victims and can even regenerate damaged brain cells in brain injury victims and slow the progression of the disease in MS patients. On the other hand, there are plenty of studies that equate brain damage with alcohol. Did your son drink by any chance? Did he eat plums?, the plums are more likely to have caused his problems than cannabis but you dont blame plums. Tin man, there is not a single study that says cannabis causes birth defects, I suspect you are a brewery representative trying to equate fetal alcohol syndrome with cannabis. One pops up every time cannabis becomes the subject of debate. I would rather have a driver who has smoked half an ounce of cannabis than a driver who has had one beer. I would even rather have a surgeon who has smoked half an ounce of cannabis than a surgeon who has had one beer.

19/01/2012 10:35:45 p.m.

Matt wrote:

I'm just shocked this world really is this stupid. It's CLEARLY harmless.

19/01/2012 8:53:09 p.m.

bukster wrote:

So there are such a huge number of people using cannabis and law change isn't even on the horizon? A great example of how out of touch our politicians are. There was the same sort of stats when decriminalizing homosexuality was being argued about. There are a lot of homosexuals out there and a lot of people who wanted the law changed and the politicians of the 1970's wouldn't have a bar of it.

19/01/2012 8:30:34 p.m.

WP wrote:

One must admit that there is a human need for drugs at times for us all as we are also chemical machines. But it is wise to use safe drugs only. Marijuana is not one. It has permanently mind-bending and memory-damaging features. I warn you all from my experience with my late son's use of marijuana. From the time of its use to his early death at age 27 he was showing signs of delusion, including excessive egotism or megalomania. Be warned all you who are druggies or prospective ones. If you want a safe drug spend time studying and using homoeopathy: don't ask doctors about it, most of them are very biased and know little or nothing about this very complicated, safe and economical medicine. weldon@slingshot.co.nz God bless.

19/01/2012 1:15:42 p.m.

Ab wrote:

Alcohol is definitely more of a problem in our society. How many hospital admissions are made over the weekend form marijuana related overdoes/violence/accidents etc compared to alcohol? Sure, it may not be good for YOUR body, like junk food etc, but it generally makes you lazy, chilled and happy. A perfect remedy for keeping you out of trouble. Though like everything, moderation is the key.

19/01/2012 12:44:04 p.m.

erm...2 wrote:

the scientific studys out there are outdated and wrong, if your predispossed to mental illness of course pot will screw you up, but Harvard doctors want it legalized round the world the want it to be added to every day diets as a supplement through juicing the leaves, its a medicine. personally i think if prostitution is legal so should pot the tax revenue from it would help our country out so much, and i can guarantee that number has increased since chch earthquake, i know heaps who have taken it up to relive stress and sleep. its better for you than most other things out there and there is no single recorded death of just smoking pot, yes records do show deaths of people on pot AND various other substances at the same time but NOT from pot by itself it SHOULD be legal

19/01/2012 12:31:40 p.m.

JJ wrote:

Paul - can you please provide stats to back your claim that cannabis leads to suicide for anybody who uses it?
Tin Man - As above please provide balanced statistics to back you claim.

The research that I have read (which there is actually very little of) comes from a negative viewpoint, where researchers study harm but do not balance with benefits (as there are some) and also do not have a large enough control group for it to be conclusive. Governments will only pay for research which will give them a result for a pre-concieved idea, that it is evil and should be eradicated, that may be the case for some individuals but you could apply that to any manufactured drug. We would sooner let doctors fill us with radioactive material, kill our immune system to the point of death for a small chance of living (if you call it living) a little longer.

19/01/2012 12:27:50 p.m.

Wiseacre wrote:

The Government should serve the will and interests of the people, not protect the interests & profit of multinational corporations. Surveys and opinion polls consistently show that upwards of 75% of New Zealanders support cannabis law reform, just as they show overwhelming public support for alcohol reform. Yet Peter Dunne and the National led Government - disregarding & ignoring the recommendations from the Law Commission's Drug Report - will continue to criminalise hundreds of thousands of tax-paying New Zealanders, wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars persecuting those very same taxpayers for choosing to enjoy a comparatively safe and natural alternative to the poison that is alcohol. And they will continue to protect the corporate profits of Big Alcohol and Big Pharmaceutical by banning anything that isn't alcohol whilst suppressing inconvenient research that doesn't support their position during consideration of the Alcohol Reform Bill. These dictatorial authoritarians need to pull their head in and recognise that what intelligent, informed, free-thinking adults choose to consume in the privacy of their own home - whilst doing no harm to anybody else - is none of the Government's business. The political elite no longer serve the people - they are no more than bought and paid for corporate stooges, implementing the agenda of the 1% for the 1%.

19/01/2012 12:24:00 p.m.

luke wrote:

theres some ignorant people here. its one of the safest drugs in the world and not to mention has thousands of other uses besides smoking it. it is better for you than alcohol and cigarettes by far which has been proven by credible test like the one from the boston uni. @ tin man what major organ defects i have never herd 1 single shred of info to suggest this please provide a link to your evidence so i can look into it. there is a lot of medical benifits from pot i.e. helping cancer patients have an appitite when going through chemo, it can actually help anxiety , depression, stress, pain, the list goes on. Now 1 thing everyone must remember is everyone reacts differently to drugs they are merely a substance of some form (usually natural) that invigorates certain receptors in our brains which make our brains produce dopamine and various other chemicals that our bodys NATURALLY PRODUCE BY THEMSELVES. If you are a lazy dropkick normally your going to be a lazy dropkick after smoking pot on the other hand if you work 9-5 5 days a week then say have band practise for 2-3 hours most nights plus other things you do then after smoking pot you will still do all those things. It doesnt make you into something it just allows brain to let your body use functions it doesnt normally do or doesnt get enough dopamine produced through foods and various things. If 1 had enough control of their mind they could naturally get high with out any drugs by thinking about it because all the ingredients for that high our bodys naturally produce. and as for any ignorant idiot who gos on about people being high on the job, well how many people do you see drunk on the job? same rules would apply you can smoke a joint at home like you would drink a beer just dont do it at work especially when operating heavy machinery and even then being high would be a lot safer than being drunk so its a stupid arguement.

19/01/2012 11:39:20 a.m.

Russell wrote:

These figures are not true as like most people know not everyone is going to admit to using Marijuana, It is widely used by all sectors of the workforce Lawyers, business people, and even probably the occasional judge I don't know why we don't follow the example of places in Europe like Amsterdam and legalise it so the police can focus on the more important narcotics out there we have a growing problem with Meth. The main problem with Marijuana is people grow it and sell it to help fund there Meth use, legalising Marijuana takes away it worth in the community, sure some will still use it that's always going to be the case but having it illegal makes it a major tool in fuelling the cash flow towards harder drugs the way the system is at present isn't working yet in Europe it is. The government is just using propaganda about Marijuana to make the public think its a major problem, at present with it being illegal sales in New Zealand yearly of Marijuana would be in the tens of millions make it legal and you would be lucky if it topped a few million a year and after several years even less than that, thus taking millions a year from some of the organised criminals who import and manufacture Meth and other hard narcotics. And yes there are some people out there who say Marijuana is evil because they know someone who was "addicted" and had major issues with the drug, there are always people out there who have more of an addictive nature than others I say its not the Marijuana its the person using it, So many blame there actions on Marijuana and give it a bad name just like with alcohol "oh I didn't know what I was doing I was drunk" or "I didn't know what I was doing I was stoned" this is no excuse it called not taking responsibility for your own actions and finding something else to lay the blame on! To sum it up we need change and trying to ban everything isn't and has not worked, time for the government to grow a pair and try something that has been proven to work its society there needs to be give and take not just take by the government.