The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the
Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD)
through the Inter-American Observatory on Drugs (OID),
in partnership with the national drug commissions of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile,
Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay, present the findings report on the study Guidelines for
Public Policies on Drugs in the Subregion: First Comparative Study on Drug
Consumption and Associated Factors among the General Population (15-64 Years Old). The
study is currently available only in Spanish.
This
study is the result of joint work among the
two international organizations and the drug
commissions within the framework of the Project "Subregional
System of Information and Research on Drugs in
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and
Uruguay."
The investigation was carried out in 2006-2007,
with the methodological designs shared to ensure
the comparative analysis of the data in a survey sample
that totaled 61,607 people that represented 43
million inhabitants in the six countries.
With regard to the findings, the study
underscores
the high level of alcohol consumption in all the
countries (between 30% and 60% of the population
drank alcohol in the last month of the study),
which also showed up in a UNODC-CICAD/OID
comparative analysis of substance abuse among
secondary school students in nine South American
countries (2004-2005).
The results concerning illicit drugs show
the highest levels of drug use in Argentina, Chile, and
Uruguay, and the lowest levels in Ecuador and Peru,
with
Bolivia in between. The illicit drug most used in all the countries is marijuana, as
it is in almost all the rest of the world.
The average of previous year use in the six countries covered by the study is
4.8% (or 2.1 million people), higher than the 3.9% world average. Cocaine is the
second most-consumed drug in the six countries, with 1.4% of the population
between the ages of 15-64 reporting use in the previous year.
At
the same time, the consumption of multiple illicit drugs
in some countries, especially among the young adult
and adolescent population, was an unexpected
finding.
The perception of risk with regard to drug
use in the population, while high, is associated
negative with consumption levels; in other
words, there is less perceived risk in the
countries with the highest consumption figures.
On the other hand, those countries with
higher levels of perceived risk concerning the
ease of access to illicit drugs are those
countries where consumption is the highest.
ELEMENTOS ORIENTADORES PARA LAS POLÍTICAS PÚBLICAS SOBRE DROGAS EN LA SUBREGIÓN: primer estudio comparativo sobre consumo de drogas y factores asociados en población de 15 a 64 años.
The complete study is only available in
Spanish
(PDF, 94 pp, 2.33 Mb). An executive
summary is available in
English
(PDF, 6 pp, 66 kb) and
Spanish (PDF, 8 pp, 67 kb) now.
