The prohibitionist discourse against drugs has always been blunt with regulatory policies: they are based on the fact that the legalization of marijuana would cause an increase in the consumption of this and other drugs.
However, this result already occurs with the current laws. According to the results of EDADES, a study carried out by the National Drug Plan, there are currently as many tobacco users as in 1997, the year in which the anti-smoking law did not yet exist; smoking was done in hospitals, bars and universities.
34% of Spaniards between 15 and 64 years old have smoked daily during the last month, 4% more than in 2015. On the other hand, 40.9% of citizens have smoked during the last year, 0. 7% more than in 2015.
Cannabis consumption is also growing
According to the results of the survey, cannabis consumption has also grown over recent years. Marijuana continues to top the list of the most consumed illegal drugs, especially among young people.
11% of Spaniards claim to have smoked cannabis during the last year, compared to 9.5% in 2015. The number of people who admit to having tried it at some point in their life has also increased; 35.2% compared to 31.5% in 2015, which shows an increase of 3.7%.
According to the survey, practically all of the respondents who admit to using cannabis mix it with tobacco (92.9%). The average number of joints consumed daily is 2.7.
Another fact to highlight is the one that refers to the number of non-consumers who would consume cannabis if it were legalized. Only 2.4% say they would try it. A hopeful fact to overthrow the main argument of the prohibitionists, who focus on a supposed increase in the consumption of this substance if it were legalized.
The consumption of hypnosedatives exceeds the 20% barrier for the second time in the entire historical series
In the EDADES study, it is curious to see how they do not give much importance to the fact that the consumption of hypnosedatives has grown by more than 2% compared to 2015 (20.8% compared to 18.7%), a rise that they describe as ‘ slight increase’, despite the fact that it is the only year, along with 2013, in which the 20% barrier has been exceeded since data on the consumption of this substance in Spain was available.
7.5% of the active population has consumed sedative-hypnotics with or without a prescription during the last 30 days. Of them, almost 80% do it daily. These medications are psychoactive substances that are only prescribed to adults. It is striking to see how the age at which consumption begins is increasingly reduced. In 2015 it was over 35, while now it stands at 34.4 years.
The Minister of Health prefers to follow the prohibitionist line
The Minister of Health, Mª Luisa Carcedo, was in charge of presenting the Study at a press conference, together with Azucena Martí, Government delegate for the National Drug Plan.
Carcedo, who a few weeks ago declared that cannabis “was not a medicine” and that “there was no scientific evidence” about its medicinal potential, has expressed his concern upon learning of these data.
Carcedo has stressed his intention to study the regulation of new devices and to review that the laws are fully complied with. Above all “to preserve the health of passive smokers and so that young people do not start smoking. It is important to make a greater effort to comply with the law.
It has also communicated its intention to work with organizations such as INJUVE (Youth Institute), to apply the necessary measures to stop the rise in the consumption of these drugs.
He also recalled that Spain works with the EU to apply and study more effective measures. Even so, he did not want to give “concrete data” about these measures. Has the EU recommended that you read the manual for politicians who want to legalize cannabis that they published a few months ago?
