Recent reports of marijuana use throughout the world indicate that the drug is widely used. Slight variations occur in the order of preference of various drugs used from one region or nation to another, but internationally marijuana is generally the most widely used illicit drug. This article presents examples of the types of analyses that would be useful in cross-national comparisons, using examples from US data. In doing so, it illustrates some of the more basic trends in marijuana use over time and differences between demographic groups in the US. The authors urge uniform data collection methods throughout the world and a move toward examining marijuana use as a world-wide problem.
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