2022 marks the 10 year anniversary of the Global Drug Survey, one of the largest global investigations into people’s drug using behaviours and actions. Aside from the opportunity it gives respondents to reflect on their use of drugs in the past year, the survey’s results are used by investigators, data scientists and academics to glean findings into a variety of topics, including drug use according to sexual orientation, use of cognitive enhancers by people with no diagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), incidence and frequency of drug-related police interactions, online drug marketplace purchases, and many more.
The 2022 version of the GDS will add a few new areas of investigation:
Drug laws
The GDS will focus this year on understanding how drug laws impact people’s decisions on whether they should take drugs or not. They will also investigate how drug laws have impacted people personally, and what type of regulatory models would be most preferred.
Mixing tobacco with cannabis
Tobacco is frequently mixed in with cannabis in joints so that it lasts longer; however, mixing with tobacco brings about a variety of health concerns. The GDS states: “Reducing tobacco use among cannabis smokers would save lives and is probably the biggest unwanted public health impact of cannabis use on most consumers.”
No and low alcohol beers, wines and spirits
As alcohol plays a causative role in over 60 chronic health conditions and at least seven different types of cancer. The advent of low or no alcoholic drinks may be a way of curtailing its impact on the body and society.
Sex and psychedelics
The GDS will be looking at the mixing of these two different pleasures as a contribution to the ongoing psychedelic renaissance.
Drink spiking
Due to a rise in attention around drink spiking, questions around drink spiking, experiences of it and how it was managed have been added to this year’s survey
Illicit tobacco
More smokers are turning to smuggled tobacco due to rises in their prices or increased barriers of access. The GDS is interested in knowing more about the types of tobacco that people smoke, and how often it is used compared to legal tobacco.
Overall, the GDS is aiming to have at least 100,000 survey respondents to reach a cumulative 1 million responses over its 10 years.
The survey can be taken here.
