News Release  -  Broad Differences in Alcohol, Tobacco                   and Illegal Drug Use Across CountriesA survey conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) research               consortium found that the United States had among the highest lifetime               rates of tobacco and alcohol use and led in the proportion of participants               reporting cannabis (marijuana) or cocaine use at least once during               their lifetime.
The study, led by Dr. Louisa Degenhardt of the               University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and colleagues,               looked at patterns in the use of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and               cocaine in 17 countries representing all six WHO regions (the Americas,               Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania).
The study,               funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA),               part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is published in               the July 1, 2008 issue of the open access journal PLoS Medicine.
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