Key finding of theGlobal Drug Survey ( GDS)2020 have been released today , revealing all sort of insights into how drug use change during the foreign times of 2020 .
More than 110,000 people from more than 25 country contributed to the survey through an anon. and scripted on-line questionnaire between November 7 and December 30 , 2019 , before COVID-19 became a major outbreak . The GDS alsoreleased some extra resultsgathered from over 55,000 people between May and June 2020 to see how the pandemic touch on people ' human relationship with drugs . While the usage of some drugs appear to have decreased for many citizenry during this unusual metre , other drugs saw a noticeable gain in use .
accord to finding from before the COVID-19 pandemic , intoxicant was the most ordinarily used drug , followed by cannabis ( THC ) , then tobacco , MDMA , marijuana ( non - psychoactive CBD ) , cocaine , e - cigarettes , upper , LSD , benzodiazepines , magic mushroom cloud , ketamine , and prescription opioids .
Their finding suggest that people in predominantly English - speaking countries and Scandinavia get drunk more often than anywhere else . mass in the UK reported getting drunk 34 clip per year , Australia and Denmark reported 32 times , and Finland 28 times , while player from South American countries reported the lowest number of occasions ( Argentina and Colombia few than seven time ) .
The results also found that many people were drinking more during lockdown . Up to 39 percent of responder said they ’re drinking more since the COVID-19 lockdown , with 29 per centum saying they ’re drinking less and 24 percent reporting no change . Around 47 percent of people said their frequence of big binge imbibition stayed the same during lockdown , but 16 percent it increased a fiddling and 7 percent said it increased a caboodle . Some of the most coarse reasons for people drinking more was have more meter on their hands , tedium , and tenseness .
Lockdown also attend many people increase their usance of cannabis , with 39 percent saying their usage of cannabis had increase to some extent and 39 per centum say it had largely remain the same . Just 21 percentage said their use had decreased . On other hand , the use of other drug slip dramatically for many people , with around 26 and 27 pct saying their cocain and MDMA use had decreased a lot during lockdown . Comparatively , just 8 and 4 percent of answerer said their charge per unit of use of cocaine and MDMA had increase a lot .
This is the ninth annualreport by the GDS , one of the world ’s largest resume on drug use . The projection is led byProfessor Adam R Winstock , Consultant Psychiatrist and Addiction Medicine Specialist , anddeveloped with the helper of a range of expert in the fields of music , public wellness insurance , drug law , drug treatment , interpersonal chemistry , and toxicology . There are a few limitations to the data , however . Much of this datum is ego - reported , which is not the most authentic way to gain information on a potentially out subject . Equally , most of the responder actively signed up to the survey , so there could be some ego - selection diagonal . For example , it could be argue that hoi polloi who desire to take part in this survey were more undecided about drug use and not needfully representative of the whole universe .
