Report Released On Student Drug/Alcohol Use
A report released by Government this morning [Apr.19] provides statistics about the use of drugs and alcohol by local school students.
The survey was a collaborative effort between the Department for National Drug Control and the Department of Education. The target population comprised all students in grade levels M2 through S4 (10-18 years), attending public, private, and home schools on the Island.
In total 3,182 students (53% females, 46% males) completed the self-administered questionnaire. Majority of respondents were Black (62.7%), and English was the primary language spoken (95.9%).
The report said, “Overall, 76% (2,418) of all survey respondents have reported use of at least one drug in their lifetime. Students recorded the highest lifetime prevalence-of-use for energy drinks (65.5%), alcohol (54.9%), marijuana (21.2%), inhalants (12.1%), and cigarettes (10.7%).
“Other lifetime prevalence ranges from a low of 0.4% for heroin to a high of 3.9% for cannabis resin. Current alcohol use for all survey respondents ranges from a low of 3% among M2 students to a high of 41% among S4 students.
“Current use of marijuana ranges from a low of 1.3% among M3 students to a high of 14.4% among S4 students; while for cigarettes, current use ranges from a 2low of 0.3% for M2 students to a high of 5.5% for S4 students.
“Gender differences were apparent as males were more likely to use cigarettes and marijuana for both lifetime (11.1% and 23.5%) and current (2.5% and 10%) use periods; while alcohol and inhalant use were more prevalent among females for both lifetime (57.3% and 13.1%) and current (19.8% and 2.8%) use periods.
“The majority (1,266) of lifetime users of alcohol, approximately 3 out of every 4, have reported recent use of alcohol (use in the past 12 months).
“Current users of alcohol reported that they most often drink at “other social events” (6.9%), “a friend’s house” (4.7%), or at “home” (3%). Almost half (294) of the current users of alcohol have reported that they usually get it from “friends” (9.2% of all survey respondents).
“While for lifetime users of marijuana, 14.6% reported using marijuana in the past 12 months, with 6 out of every 10 indicated they usually get it from friends. The majority of current marijuana users reported that they most often use it “at a friend’s house” (2.6%), “at home” (1.8%), or at “the corner/block” (1.3%).
The full 169-page report is below [PDF here] click ‘Fullscreen’ for greater clarity:
oh but i thought the majority of these substances are illegal and thus considered controlled substances..so what this report is saying is that the war on drugs isnt working? gosh who would have figured?!
by the way, hashish and cannabis resin are the same thing
Hashish and resin are two completely different things fella. Hash is the budding part of the plant crushed and re-crushed into a layered form, while the resin is simply that, the resin of the plant squeezed via ice cold water from out of said bud and left to dry.
OH my god your stupidity knows no bounds. hash is sifted cannabis resin, as in the THC ‘crystals’, cannabis resin is just that. there are several forms of cannabis resin or hashish. You have hard block resin, commonly found in morroco, afghan hashish which is extracted using the same technique (beating the plant to make crystals fall off) and heated to make it gooey, hence its street name of Squidgy Black; there is also charas commonly found in northern india and nepal which is obtained by rubbing the buds of a mature marijuana plant between your hands and picking the resin stuck to your hands and rolling it into a ball, good example being Nepal Temple Ball.
Ice extraction is commonly known as Ice hash, bubble hash, Ice-o-lator or hippy crack. its doen through mixing buds, shake or anyhting left over from a marijuana plant, addidng it to a bucket with lots of ice and straining it through fine mesh screens.
your definition of hash is everything we get in bermuda, compressed buds.
just to educate you fella.
Come on! There is no need to call anyone stupid because they are uneducated in some subjects. Many think cannabis & hemp are two different plants & highly opposed to cannabis but will eat hemp seed products because of this. These people are not stupid they are just not educated in this fact they are the same plant. Name calling just encourages animosity over a subject that is highly taboo. For society’s sake we need to have open discussions about all drugs without lambasting each other so we all gain knowledge that will help us guide our way out of the darkness. I know this poster commented on another with false contradictions but at least they didn’t call them stupid.
Yup! I agree! This report is BULL! I don’t doubt there is high use of drugs amongst the young but this report has clearly been done by an uneducated source. How the heck are so many kids getting hold of hallucinogens? Are they going to the cow fields or getting them from local fauna or is this inline with ecstasy or lsd which should be made clear? Also if the average age of onset of highly addictive heroin is so young why would it cease with new users in senior years. If its just as easy for young to get weed it’s just as easy for them to get harder drugs. The gangster wannabes do not discriminate with what they push on kids & they would rather get them to try drugs of a higher dependency rate than cannabis so they can have daily repeat customers. The people who do these reports need to educate themselves before posting such misinformation. Without decriminalization we will not have true facts given because no one will be honest about illegal activities that may lead to their arrest. Criminalization of drugs leads to high usage & all sorts of crime.
Unless you are a teen growing up in today’s society, don’t question these results.
YOU WOULD BE SURPRISED.
Why would I be surprised when I already stated above that I don’t doubt there is high use of drugs amongst the young? Please don’t give me that teen growing up in today’s society nonsense. All the drugs around now except for ecstasy have been around since I was a teen. Even if we didn’t have wannabe gangs & gun crime we still had posses & the risk of them jumping someone & smashing their head in with a helmet or metal pipe. Even ecstasy I know about because when I was in college it came about & I know the signs so I know many of the young here do it. I also have many young relatives who confide in me because I don’t take prejudice views of subjects & will give them educated opinions without sounding as I’m belittling them. My question of the accuracy is a valid one because I am educated in the results & signs of all drug use & to have statistics that state an average of 14 kids use heroine here at 13 years old then to state that there is a 18.9% difficulty in access of cocaine is a contradiction of what are supposed to be facts. I can tell you facts about your generation that YOU WOULD BE SURPRISED you don’t know about. For instance I know there are many in your generation that abuse drugs that can be bought over the counter in any pharmacy in Bermuda & also abuse under the counter drugs that other kids get prescribed by their psychiatrists & bought by their parents for them. What you young blood need to do is educate yourself about all the facts of all drugs including alcohol & make sure you educate your friends about them also so that if someone in your click starts using you will be able to help them. At 14 years old I had to call the ambulance for one of my friends who had alcohol poisoning it was one of the scariest days in my life especially since I had been drinking alcohol also.
These results are inaccurate.
“Anybody who is at all sophisticated about marijuana/cannabis would rate them the way two researchers were asked to rate drugs in order of addiction,” says Dr. Lester Grinspoon, MD Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School.
“Nicotine was one, alcohol was two, then heroin, then cocaine, then coffee, and a few others and then marijuana/cannabis was at the very bottom of the list. Even below coffee!”
Bernews: flawed picture at the top. Cannabis is NOT A DRUG. Cannabis is less addictive than coffee. Caffeine kills over 10,000 people a year. Cannabis kills no one. Cannabis is an illegal natural medicine.
That being said children and teenagers should not use cannabis, alcohol or caffeine.
Cannabis is a natural medicine which hurts no one and helps many. Cannabis is not a drug. Cannabis does not addict or kill.
430,000 deaths per year in the US from tobacco.
100,000 deaths per year in the US from prescription pharmaceutical drugs.
85,000 deaths per year in the US from alcohol.
10,000 deaths per year in the US from caffeine.
7,000 deaths per year in the US from Aspirin and over the counter medications.
Zero deaths per year worldwide from cannabis.
Glaucoma, Epilepsy, Muscular Dystrophy, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, wasting syndrome, nausea, chronic pain, menstrual cramps, depression, anxiety, hepatitis c, cancer, chemo patients, AIDS patients are all some of the diseases and symptoms which cannabis helps alleviate.
“After dealing with about Ten Thousand patients over the last 15 years I would say that over 200 different medical conditions respond favourably to cannabis.” said Dr. Tod Mikuriya, MD, former national administrator of the US Government’s Marijuana Research Programmes. “There is no product out there today which provides as many medical benefits as cannabis.”
Bermuda is literally importing death from the United States while harmless helpful cannabis remains illegal. The sheer hypocrisy of it is astounding.
Education and rehabilitation are more effective than criminalization and persecution for a natural medicine which hurts no one and helps many.
When it comes to cannabis Bermuda needs to educate and regulate not subjugate and dominate.
THC & CBD are drugs & are active in cannabis therefor it is a plant & a drug just as coffee, nutmeg & other plants with active substances are. It may not be as addictive as others but to say it is not a drug is a fallacy & Dr. Lester Grinspoon has also classified cannabis as a drug. Not trying to lessen the rest of your facts but trying to keep it fully factual.
I do get tired of hearing/seeing this “Cannabis does not addict or kill.” Please understand what the definition of addiction is
Addiction may be defined as the continued use of a mood altering substance or behaviour despite adverse consequences. Alternatively, it may be defined as a neurological impairment leading to such behaviors.
Addictions can include, but are not limited to, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, exercise abuse, and gambling. Classic hallmarks of addiction include: impaired control over substances/behaviour, preoccupation with substance/behaviour, continued use despite consequences, and denial. Habits and patterns associated with addiction are typically characterized by immediate gratification (short-term reward), coupled with delayed deleterious effects (long-term costs). Physiological dependence occurs when the body has to adjust to the substance by incorporating the substance into its ‘normal’ functioning. This state creates the conditions of tolerance, and withdrawal. Tolerance is the process by which the body continually adapts to the substance and requires increasingly larger amounts to achieve the original effects. Withdrawal refers to physical and psychological symptoms people experience when reducing or discontinuing a substance the body had become dependent on. Symptoms of withdrawal generally include but are not limited to anxiety, irritability, intense cravings for the substance, nausea, hallucinations, headaches, cold sweats, and tremors.
By the nature of this definition cannabis IS addictive. An addiction is something that fomrs into a habit and becoems a ‘need’ versus a want. Is THC natural occuring in the human body? Yes, so it can not be bad for you. But consider this, when the brain can get a naturally occurring brain chemical from an outside source it will stop producing said chemical. This creates a form of chemicla dependancy aka addiction.
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is not produced by humans endocannabinoids are. THC binds onto the cannabinoid receptors that produce endocannabinoids & does not replace them but enhances them in a human. The problem with young people taking it is their brains are still developing their receptors & THC can block developmental routes. Once an adult’s brain is fully developed this type of blockage will not occur.
I see in the Royal Gazette today that Amsterdam is going to make all the Coffee Shops into member clubs with a limit of 2,000 members. Basically it is going to cripple the weed smoking tourist. Bermudian byes that like to have a burn are gonna have no more “smoking holidays” real soon. Have a read.
Or just go to Cali, the medical stuff is great to say the least and guarenteed not to have any foreign chemicals in it. You can’t get a legal license unless your a resident but the weed itself isn’t hard to get.
Royal Gazette is incorrect the only municipalities that have agreed to this in Netherlands is Maastricht & Breda. Amsterdam is still in agreement that crime will increase if they allowed the tourist ban to go through & it will also show support of discrimination of foreigners which goes against the dutch constitution. The owner of the coffeeshops in Harrlem has the whole municipality including the mayor on his side & has agreed to always oppose the weedpass.
Why the war on drugs isn’t working is that most of the people behind the war on drugs are the ones who are pushing the drugs, its as easy to figure out as 1+1…Pushing the make believe war on drugs decreases supply and increases the cost of drugs and the demand never changes..
CANNABIS IS NONE TOXIC. Deaths per year in the U.S.A: Tobacco 425,000, Poor Diet 365,000, Alcohol 85,000, RX Dugs 32,000, Illicit Drugs 17,000, Aspirin(nsaid) 7,600, Cannabis 0. Marijuana, or cannabis, as it is more appropriately called, has been part of humanity’s medicine chest for almost as long as history has been recorded. For more about the history and science of medical cannabis, visit the national NORML medical marijuana website. Cannabis Awareness Network.
Governments tend to ban things they cannot, control this government is no exception. If cannabis could only be made in a lab like many RX drugs it would have been legal and they will have control over it like they have over the pharmaceutical companies.
@True Bermudian
Cannabis is a drug. By definition a drug is a chemical substance that affects the processes of the mind or body. The word drug does not carry with it an impression of harm or good. It is what it is, and cannabis is a drug.
Your list of what causes death above is interestingly all related to legal substances. Maybe it is a reporting bias. There are not zero deaths worldwide from cannabis. That is incorrect. Once again, it is not a judgement on harm or good, it is just fact. Good drugs cause death, bad drugs cause death, but to suggest that there is an agent which does not is misleading.
Hurts noone is incorrect. There is double the risk of having a fatal traffic accident after having used cannabis. There is an increased risk of psychotic disease in those using cannabis.
Helps many is correct. That is the nature of a drug. It can both harm and help. Heroin also helps many.
I can only agree that legalised drugs are by far the most dangerous, such as prescription drugs and alchohol. I agree that education and rehabilitation are effective. However, education and rehabilitation is not the opposite of criminalization as you suggest in your sentence.
When the hell have you ever heard of a road traffic accident due to the driver being high off weed? STFU
Good heavens.. what stupidity .. Who on earth is going to admit being high at the time of a crash when it’s illegal in the first place …? duuuuh
And furthermore there WAS a case in the US year before last wher ethere was a horrible and fatal crash where the mom was high and dorve into the other lane killing some of her children .
Finally , it seems that some people take personal pride in their knowledge (real or percieved) of drugs . Maybe someone can answer this .. And I’m being serious here , ok ?
Herb and tobacco are both natural leaf products. How is it that when smoked one causes cancer and the other doesn’t ? And if herb really cured cancer we’d all have known about it for a very long time , no ?
It is good to have real knowledge about drugs since they have such an impact on society.
Tobacco leaves are used more as a drug than cannabis leaves. The female flower of the plant is used or the sifted trichomes. These parts have a lot less tar & other carcinogens than the leaves of the plant. This is why when the fact is put out about the leaves having more tar & other carcinogens than tobacco its irrelevant. For someone to get cancer from the minute amount of tar in the flower is highly unlikely unless they’re a chain smoker. Most patients who are prescribe medical cannabis will use a machine that filters all the tar out completely. The cancer patients take it because it relieves pains, nausea & loss of appetite of cancer & chemotherapy. Cancer patients do not take it as a cure since there is only an unproven theory that it can cure cancer.
Of course their is a risk of having a fatal traffic accident after having used cannabis but that’s the same as the risk of drunk driving, driving while on a mobile or driving when sleepy. This is not a result of cannabis use but a result of mixing cannabis with heavy machinery.
Also there is no conclusive evidence of increased risk of psychotic disease in those using cannabis because the studies that have stated this were not properly controlled. The studies came from evidence of people who have a psychotic disease admitting cannabis use. This is like taking count of all hiv patients who use cannabis & stating that hiv can be contracted by the use of the drug. In order for them to do a proper study of this is to take a control group of cannabis users that has not been diagnosed already with a psychotic disease & study them over a period of time to see if they develop a psychotic disease. The problem with a study like this is to get a control group that will openly admit to doing something illegal.
These figures are frightening but not unexpected. Alcohol remains the most popular, most frequently used and most dangerous of all the drugs mentioned, since it has a negative impact on every single organ in the body and is implicated in many life threatening diseases, such as cancers, edocarditis, many gastro-intestinal problems, liver and kidney diseases, pancreatic diseases, brain problems, the list goes on and on. And then there are Alcohol Related Neurological Disorders (ARND) that stem from drinking during pregnancy and give rise to many of the same antisocial behaviours we are presently suffering from.
I am praying for this country.
@Catherine DL Zero deaths from Cannabis only means that death was not the result of Cannabis alone, their is no evidence of any one dying from Cannabis overdose. Emergency rooms statistics state that there is usually other substances involved such as alcohol and cocaine in these overdose cases. Official statistics record two deaths involving cannabis (and no other drug) in 1993, two in 1994 and one in 1995 but these were due to inhalation of vomit. All drugs are bad because of the long or short term side effects and the possibility of abuse.
Two great Bermudian narcotics, alcohol and Christianity
I’d take the results of these surveys with a grain of salt. When I took these types of surveys when I was a teen, I’d always say that I used drugs and/or alcohol even if I didn’t and so did plenty of the other kids. We thought it was fun and cool to say that we were doing these things even though we weren’t.
Most teenagers aren’t mature enough to get the full significance of the importance of these surveys. It’s just fun to f*k around with the establishment. If TPTB were serious about these things, they’d do actual drug tests on these kids and then analyse those results. I know it would cost more, but the results would be more telling then relying on a giggling kid having fun and ticking whatever catches their fancy just to mess with adult heads. Trust me, kids have done this for ages and are still doing it!
I know exactly what you are talkimg about…When I was much, much younger, immature, and played the fool, my friends and I did the exact same thing that you speak of. Now that I am a grown, mature and responsible adult I like you, don’t take the results to heart because our young people today do the same thing…..I know this to be FACT because surveys have been given in school and later on in the day you hear the children saying to each other, “What you put for question so and so?” Then they are gigglng and laughing, “Me too!” so the results are so not accurate………
In 2001, there were 331 alcohol overdose deaths and 0 marijuana overdose deaths. Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Source: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5337a2.htm
Excessive alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States and is associated with multiple adverse health consequences, including liver cirrhosis, various cancers, unintentional injuries, and violence.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported 20,687 “alcohol-induced deaths” (excluding accidents and homicides) in 2003. Source: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/alcohol.htm
The CDC has no reports of “marijuana-induced deaths.”
There is little evidence, however, that long-term cannabis use causes permanent cognitive impairment, nor is there is any clear cause and effect relationship to explain the psychosocial associations.
The latest and most comprehensive research on marijuana has concluded that it does not contribute to the development of lung cancer. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR200605…
There has never been a documented case of lung cancer in a marijuana-only smoker, and recent studies find that marijuana use is not associated with any type of cancer. The same cannot be said for alcohol, which has been found to contribute to a variety of long-term negative health effects, including cancers and cirrhosis of the liver.
Alcohol use contributes to aggressive behavior and acts of violence, whereas marijuana use reduces the likelihood of violent behavior.
Alcohol is clearly the drug with the most evidence to support a direct intoxication-violence relationship.
Cannabis reduces likelihood of violence during intoxication… Source: Hoaken, Peter N.S., Sherry H. Stewart. Journal of Addictive Behaviors. 28, pages 1533-1554. Drugs of abuse and the elicitation of human aggressive behavior. Dept. of Psychology, University of Western Ontario. Dept. of of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University.
Alcohol use is highly associated with violent crime, whereas marijuana use is not.
About 3 million violent crimes occur each year in which victims perceive the offender to have been drinking at the time of the offense.
Two-thirds of victims who suffered violence by an intimate (a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend) reported that alcohol had been a factor.
Among spouse victims, 3 out of 4 incidents were reported to have involved an offender who had been drinking. Source: U.S. Department of Justice. Bureau of Justice Statistics. National Crime Victimization Survey 2002.
Alcohol use contributes to the likelihood of domestic violence and sexual assault and marijuana use does not.
Of the psychoactive substances examined, among individuals who were chronic partner abusers, the use of alcohol and cocaine was associated with significant increases in the daily likelihood of male-to-female physical aggression; cannabis and opiates were not significantly associated with an increased likelihood of male partner violence.
The odds of any male-to-female physical aggression were more than 8 times (11 times) higher on days when men drank than on days of no alcohol consumption. The odds of severe male-to-female physical aggression were more than 11 times (11 times) higher on days of men’s drinking than on days of no drinking. Moreover, in both samples, over 60% of all episodes occurred within 2 hours of drinking by the male partner. Source: Fals-Stewart , William, James Golden, Julie A. Schumacher. Journal of Addictive Behaviors. 28, pages 1555-1574. Intimate partner violence and substance use: A longitudinal day-to-day examination. Research Institute on Addictions, University at Buffalo, State University of New York
Alcohol use is prevalent in cases of sexual assault and date rape on college campuses, whereas marijuana use is not considered a contributing factor in cases of sexual assault and date rape.
A Harvard School of Public Heath study found that 72 percent of college rapes occurred when the female was too intoxicated by alcohol to resist/consent. Source: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/cas/Documents/rapeintox-pressRelease/
Comparisons between alcohol and marijuana with respect to sexual assault are very difficult. This is because it does not appear as if marijuana is a significant contributing factor. The best way to “prove” this is through observation that many organizations dedicated to studying and educating about sexual assault do not list marijuana as a substance associated with incidents. Here is a good example from the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network: http://www.rainn.org/types-of-assault/sexual-assault/drug-facilitated-as…
Note their description of alcohol: “Alcohol is the most commonly used chemical in drug facilitated sexual assault. In large part this is due to the fact that alcohol is easily accessible and a chemical that many people use in social interactions.” Given the fact that marijuana is also “easily accessible” and used widely in “social interactions,” it is quite telling that marijuana is not even listed at all on this “Drug Facilitated Assault” page.
Another example: A Web site sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services lists alcohol, but not marijuana, as putting a person at risk for unwanted or risky sexual activity: http://www.4woman.gov/faq/rohypnol.htm#5
Alcohol use contributes to reckless behavior and serious injuries, and it is highly associated with emergency room visits, whereas marijuana use does not contribute to such behavior and injuries, and is seldomly associated with emergency room visits.
“Cannabis differs from alcohol … in one major respect. It does not seem to increase risk-taking behavior. This means that cannabis rarely contributes to violence either to others or to oneself, whereas alcohol use is a major factor in deliberate self-harm, domestic accidents and violence.” Source: British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, 2002.
Lifetime use of marijuana is rarely associated with emergency room visits. According to an analysis of epidemiologic survey data, “[M]arijuana was by far the most commonly used (illicit) drug, but individuals who used marijuana had a low prevalence of drug-related ED visits.” Source: American Journal of Emergency Medicine, July 12, 2010.
“Alcohol use in the six hours prior to injury was associated with [an elevated] relative risk compared with no alcohol use. Cannabis use was inversely related to risk of injury.” Source: BMC Public Health, 2009. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/40
“Self-reported marijuana use in the previous seven days was associated … with a substantially decreased risk of injury.” Source: University of Missouri Dept. of Medicine, June 2006.
“Alcohol and cocaine use is independently associated with violence-related injuries, whereas opiate use is independently associated with nonviolent injuries and burns. … Associations of positive toxicology test results for … cannabis … with injury type, injury mechanisms, and outcomes were not statistically significant.” Source: State University of New York-Buffalo’s Department of Family Medicine. Journal of TRAUMA Injury, Infection, and Critical Care: 2005.
Fewer than 200 total patients were admitted to California hospitals in 2008 for “marijuana abuse or dependence.” By contrast, there are an estimated 73,000 annual hospitalizations in California related to the use of alcohol. Source: RAND Corporation study on the fiscal impact of Proposition 19, 2010. http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_15525522?nclick_check=1
Alcohol contributes to about 599,000 unintentional student injuries each year. No such statistics exist when it comes to student marijuana use. Source: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Task Force on College Drinking, 2007.
“From beat cop to police chief I saw ample evidence of the harm caused by alcohol. And the absence of evidence caused by marijuana use. And I mean the complete absence. I can not recall a single case in which marijuana contributed to domestic violence. Or crimes of theft and the like.” – Norm Stamper, PhD and former Seattle Chief of Police 1994 – 2000
And lets not get started on how bad those so called energy drinks are that all the kids are drinking these days.
Those drinks are addicting and detrimental to human health. How they are legal and allowed to be sold to our Bermuda kids is beyond me.
VANCOUVER / ADDICTION / HOMELESS / CHAOS / POVERTY
THE HARSH REALITY OF ADDICTION
The producers of this short film are both recovering addicts who have both spent time living and indulging with drug addiction in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Today they are both clean and sober with multiple years of recovery
Addiction: Chaos in Vancouver
http://arch1design.com/blog/vancouver-addiction-homelessness-poverty/
“If its just as easy for young to get weed it’s just as easy for them to get harder drugs. The gangster wannabes do not discriminate with what they push on kids & they would rather get them to try drugs of a higher dependency rate than cannabis so they can have daily repeat customers.”
No, it is more difficult to get harder drugs here, particularly if you exclusively enjoy a joint now & then. You wouldn’t know how to go about it, it is a completely different supply chain.
Further it is a myth that dealers “push” harder drugs on cannabis users. Dealers are simply satisfying a demand. As a rule, there will ALWAYS be supply if there is demand. That’s capitalism for ya. And that’s why the relentless war on drugs is such s dismal failure. Other than this so-called war is essentially based on racism, misinformation and outright lies, fully supported by Big Pharma. But of course.