Canadians among world's most frequent drunkards and cocaine users: survey

Canadians among most frequent drunks: survey A new global survey finds Canadians are among the world's most frequent drinkers and cocaine users.

Canadians are some of the most likely people in the world to report getting drunk, and some of the least likely to regret their intoxication.

According to the newest edition of the Global Drug Survey, Canadians reported 48 incidents of drunkenness over the past year. That number was well ahead of the global average of 33, and only slightly behind the top two countries – the United Kingdom (51) and United States (50).

When it came to regretting those drunken stupors, though, Canadians weren’t quite so forthcoming. Canadians said, on average, that they regretted getting drunk about 18 per cent of the time it happened – slightly more often than Americans, but less often than people in 21 of the 29 countries surveyed. Canadian women regretted bouts of drunkenness about 33 per cent more often than Canadian men.

Globally, women aged 25 and older were most likely to regret their drunkenness, while men aged 25 and younger were least likely to report similar feelings.

Canadians were a little more likely to consider cutting down on their alcohol consumption, with 45 per cent of Canadian respondents reporting they would like to drink less over the next year – good for sixth place among 29 countries, and well ahead of the global average of 38 per cent. Nineteen per cent of Canadians said they would like help curbing their drinking.

Canadians also scored high when it came to cocaine use. Among respondents who said they had used cocaine in the past 12 months, the Canadian average of 10 days of use was tied for second in the world. Canadians also had relatively low purchase prices and the second-highest interest among countries surveyed in reducing cocaine use.

The Global Drug Survey bills itself as the largest survey of drug consumption behaviours in the world. This year’s edition of the survey included responses from nearly 125,000 people in more than 30 countries, including nearly 2,000 Canadians. The average age of all respondents was 29.

The U.K.-based survey also found a significant global increase in online purchases of illegal drugs from so-called “darknet” websites. Canada was no exception to this trend, with a record 11.4 per cent of Canadian respondents say they had used drugs from the darknet in the past 12 months.

Ecstasy, LSD and cannabis were the drugs most commonly purchased from darknet sources on a worldwide basis, while respondents said they had learned about their darknet purchasing options mainly through friends and Reddit.