Explosive increase in cannabis addiction
The number of cannabis addicts in the Netherlands seeking help at official bodies has risen explosively since 1994. Cocaine and amphetamine users are also on the rise. Conversely, demand for aid among users of heroine and methadone declined, according to the National Drug Monitor.
The number of people seeking help at addiction aid organisations for a “primary cannabis problem” grew from 1,951 in 1994 to 6,544 in 2006. Compared with 2005 (6,100), the 2006 figure was up 7 percent. The number of hospitalisations due to cannabis abuse climbed by as much as 26 percent from 2005 to 377 in 2006.
The Trimbos Institute, which draws up the monitor annually for the health ministry, has no clear explanation. “The increase in demand for help could indicate an increase in the number of problem users of cannabis, but could equally indicate an improvement in the help offered for cannabis problems, or increased awareness of the addictive properties of cannabis, which could result in users being quicker to seek help.”
Remarkably, Trimbos does not discuss as a possible reason the strong increase since the 1990s in the quantity of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis. This is the result of optimised growing techniques and equipment, which are easy and legal to buy in the Netherlands.
Also remarkable is the enormous range given by Trimbos on the number of cocaine users. “Local studies show the proportion of current cocaine users among youngsters and young adults in night life varies between 3 and 19 percent.”
The number of “problem users” of cocaine “is not known.” The addiction care industry did however register up to 2004 “a strong growth in the number of primary cocaine clients, from 2,500 in 1994 to 10,000 in 2004,” but “this trend has not continued in 2005 and 2006.”
The number of people that report to addiction care bodies with an amphetamine problem is “relatively limited” (4 percent of all drugs clients in 2006) but “there is an observable upward trend.” In 2001, 482 people were registered as having a primary amphetamine problem; in 2006, this was up at 1,215, and there was a 9 percent increase between 2005 and 2006.
The Netherlands has an estimated total of between 24,000 and 46,000 “problem users of opiates”. Here it is mainly a matter of heroin addicts, of which 13,000 were registered at addiction care bodies in 2006, nearly one-quarter less than in 2001 (18,000).
Trimbos signals an increasing problem with alcohol. In 2007, 38 percent of men and 14 percent of women in the 18-24 age group were heavy drinkers (consuming at least six glasses of alcohol on one or more days a week). This is less than in 2002 (42 percent of the men and 18 percent of the women), but more than in 2006.
Between 2001 and 2006, the number of hospitalisations due to alcohol climbed from nearly 3,900 to 4,855. The number of youngsters and children aged 16 or younger subject to alcohol-related hospitalisation expanded between 2001 and 2006 from 263 to 482.
Source: NIS News, 29 May 2009
