Cross-national comparison of adolescent drinking and cannabis use in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands

Simons-Morton, Bruce; Pickett, William; Boyce, Will; ter Bogt, Tom F.M.; Vollebergh, Wilma

doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2009.02.003

« Previous Next »International Journal of Drug Policy
Volume 21, Issue 1 , Pages 64-69, January 2010

Cross-national comparison of adolescent drinking and cannabis use in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands

Bruce Simons-Morton
- Prevention Research Branch, Division of Epidemiology, Statistics and Prevention Research, Eunice Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, MD 20892, United States
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 301 496 5674; fax: +1 301 402 2084.
William Pickett
- Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Queen's University, c/o Emergency Medicine Research, Angada 3, Kingston General Hospital, 76 Stuart St., Kingston, ON, K7M 2V7, Canada
Will Boyce
- Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Queen's University, c/o Emergency Medicine Research, Angada 3, Kingston General Hospital, 76 Stuart St., Kingston, ON, K7M 2V7, Canada
Tom F.M. ter Bogt
- Faculty of Education, Social Program Evaluation Group, Queen's University, 99 University Ave, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada
Wilma Vollebergh
- Department of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80140, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands

Received 29 September 2008; received in revised form 10 February 2009; accepted 16 February 2009. published online 23 March 2009.

Abstract

Background

This research examined the prevalence of drinking and cannabis use among adolescents in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands, countries with substantially different laws and policies relating to these substances.

Methods

Laws regarding drinking and cannabis use were rated for each country. Substance use prevalence data among 10th graders from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Survey conducted in each country in 2005–2006 were examined.

Results

Laws regarding alcohol and cannabis were found to be strictest in the United States, somewhat less strict in Canada, and least strict in the Netherlands. On most measures of drinking, rates were lower in the United States than in Canada or the Netherlands. With United States as the referent, relative risks (RR) for monthly drinking were 1.30 (1.11–1.53) for Canadian boys and 1.55 (1.31–1.83) for girls, and 2.0 (1.73–2.31) for Dutch boys and 1.92 (1.62–2.27) for Dutch girls. Drunkenness was also higher among Canadian boys and girls and Dutch boys. However, rates of cannabis use did not differ between the countries, except that Dutch girls were less likely to use cannabis in the past year (RR=.67; .46–.96).

Conclusions

The lower prevalence of adolescent drinking and drunkenness (except among Dutch girls) in the United States is consistent with the contention that strict drinking policies may limit drinking among 10th graders. However, the finding that cannabis use rates did not differ across countries is not consistent with the contention that prohibition-oriented policies deter use or that liberal cannabis policies are associated with elevated adolescent use. Based on these findings, the case for strict laws and policies is considerably weaker for cannabis than for alcohol.

Keywords: Alcohol, Cannabis, Policy, International, Adolescent substance use