CEDRO CENTR UM VOOR DRUGS Cannabis Use in Amsterdam ONDERZOEK UV Peter Cohen Arjan Sas A CEDRO CEN CEDRO CENTRUM VOOR DRUGSONDERZOEK UVA TRUM VOOR DRU GSONDERZOEK U VA CEDRO CE NTRUM VOOR DR UGSONDERZOEK TITLE Cohen, Peter, & Arjan Sas (1998), Cannabis use in Amsterdam. Amsterdam, Centrum voor Drugsonderzoek, Universiteit van Amsterdam. © 1998 Peter Cohen & Arjan Sas. All rights reserved. URL of this document: http://www.cedro- uva.org/lib/cohen.canasd.pdf CANNABIS USE IN AMSTERDAM Peter COHEN & Arjan SAS 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION AND CHAPTER SUMMARIES ..............................................................3 1.1 Some results and chapter summaries ..........................................................................6 2 SAMPLING EXPERIENCED CANNABIS USERS ..............................................................11 2.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................11 2.2 Sampling.................................................................................................................11 2.3 Interviewing and educating the interviewers............................................................13 2.4 Non-response ..........................................................................................................14 2.5 Social, demographic, and economic characteristics of the sample................................14 2.6 Outgoing behaviour.................................................................................................16 2.7 Miscellaneous characteristics ....................................................................................16 2.8 Appendix: Tables comparing response with non-response..........................................17 3 INITIATION INTO CANNABIS USE .............................................................................20 4 LEVEL OF CANNABIS USE OVER TIME .......................................................................26 4.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................26 4.2 Pattern of use during career.....................................................................................26 4.3 Frequency of cannabis use per week.........................................................................29 4.4 Parts of the day on which cannabis is used on a typical day of use .............................30 4.5 Days of use during a typical week ............................................................................31 4.6 Level of being high at a typical occasion of cannabis use ............................................32 4.7 Duration of being high at a typical occasion of cannabis use.......................................33 4.8 Average amount of cannabis used per month............................................................33 4.9 Conclusions about characteristics of use.....................................................................39 5 METHODS OF USE....................................................................................................41 5.1 Modes of cannabis ingestion.....................................................................................41 5.2 Preferring hashish or marihuana?.............................................................................41 6 RULES AROUND CANNABIS.......................................................................................47 6.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................47 6.2 Rules applied to the use of cannabis.........................................................................47 6.3 Other methods for finding 'self regulatory mechanisms' for cannabis consumption.....48 6.4 Situations that are fit for cannabis consumption.......................................................48 6.5 Emotions and cannabis use.......................................................................................50 6.6 Locations of use.......................................................................................................53 6.7 Company with which to use cannabis.......................................................................54 6.8 Persuading or dissuading cannabis use in others.........................................................56 6.9 Advice to novice users..............................................................................................58 6.10 Driving under influence of alcohol and/or cannabis................................................59 6.11 Rules related to buying cannabis............................................................................61 6.12 Price and use level.................................................................................................62 6.13 Other drugs at source of cannabis...........................................................................63 7 ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES, AND EFFECTS OF CANNABIS.................................66 7.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................66 7.2 Advantages..............................................................................................................66 7.3 Disadvantages..........................................................................................................68 7.4 Reasons for cannabis use ..........................................................................................71 7.5 Effects of cannabis use.............................................................................................72 7.6 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................76 8 QUITTING AND DIMINISHING CANNABIS USE.........................................................79 8.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................79 8.2 Quitting cannabis use ..............................................................................................79 8.3 Periods of abstinence...............................................................................................82 8.4 Decreasing cannabis use ...........................................................................................83 9 OTHER DRUG USE ...................................................................................................85 9.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................85 9.2 Prevalence of other illicit drug use ...........................................................................85 9.3 Combining cannabis use with other drug use ............................................................89 9.4 Experience with iv use of drugs................................................................................90 10 DEPENDENCE ..........................................................................................................91 10.1 Introduction .........................................................................................................91 10.2 Special or deviant behaviour to obtain cannabis .....................................................91 10.3 Dependence according to DSM-IV criteria............................................................92 10.4 Treatment ............................................................................................................94 10.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................99 10.6 Some other reflections and speculations on 'dependence' and the need for treatment............................................................................................................99 11 DRUGS AND DRUG POLICY...................................................................................102 11.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................102 11.2 Drug policy preferences .......................................................................................102 11.3 Legal complications..............................................................................................103 11.4 Gateway effects of cannabis use ...........................................................................104 REFERENCES...............................................................................................................108 APPENDIX: QUESTIONNAIRE .....................................................................................112 1INTRODUCTION AND CH APTER SUMMARIES In his overview of cannabis policy debates in Australia, Hall states that the debate often boils down to a discussion of a false antithesis, that is the debate between the position that cannabis is harmless (ergo it should be legal) or harmful (ergo it should be banned)1. According to Hall, this reduction in the debate makes it difficult to reach a balanced appraisal between positive and negative effects of cannabis use and the positive and negative effects of its prohibition. He paraphrases Room by saying that one either engages in “problem inflation” or in “problem deflation” when discussing the pro’s and con’s of cannabis use, and their – allegedly – logical connections to policy. Our investigation into positive and negative effects, consequences, disadvantages and advantages of cannabis