There’s a lot of lighting up going on down under.

British medical journal, The Lancet, recently published an analysis of global trends in illegal drugs and their effect on public health, which shows that Australians and their Kiwi neighbours are the current global front-runners in use of both marijuana and methamphetamine. Not exactly the global top honours they usually vie for.

The study shows that in 2009, no less than 15% of the populations of Australia and New Zealand between 15 and 64 used some form of marijuana. North America only clocked 11% whereas Asia only registered 2.5%. Experts have rushed forward to explain the high usage of dope in Australia, citing a culture that is largely tolerant of substance abuse, particularly marijuana, and the wide availability of marijuana to many parts of Australian society, including three states that have moved to decriminalise its use.

Of much more concern was the 3% of the Australian population that used meth in 2009, compared to between 0.2% and 1.4% in Asian countries. Similarly, while less than 1% of deaths in Australia in 2009 were related to marijuana use, over 12% of deaths there in the same year were attributable to tobacco consumption.

On a global scale, the study found that marijuana was the world’s most widely consumed illicit drug, with anywhere from 125 million to 203 million people partaking annually, though data from many developing nations was hard to come by.

Use of the marijuana far outstrips that of other illicit drugs globally, with 14 million to 56 million people estimated to use amphetamines, 14 million to 21 million estimated to use cocaine and 12 million to 21 million estimated to use opiates like heroin, according to the study’s findings.

[Source: The New York Times]