Template talk:Global estimates of illegal drug users

Alcohol

It would be interesting to add alcohol to this list; it's illegal in a number of countries, but also commonly used. The table might need to be expanded to differentiate between users in countries where a given substance is legal vs. illegal; marijuana is becoming legalized in more jurisdictions. -- Beland (talk) 04:35, 8 July 2018 (UTC)

This template is updated annually with statistics reported in the annual World Drug Report, which bases these estimates off things like quantities of drug seizures and trends in drug trafficking during that year relative to previous ones. I'm almost positive that they don't cover alcohol, although I suppose one could just check the ref to be sure. In any event, the report almost always provides data for the preceding year or two, so coverage of where it's legal vs illegal wouldn't reflect the current legal status in that country. Hence, I doubt a breakdown of its use based upon national legal status is included in the marijuana section of the report (each drug-specific section is fairly lengthy, so that'd take longer to check). Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 04:51, 8 July 2018 (UTC)

Actually, what I said about it being updated annually hasn't been true for the past 2 years. The 2018 report is out right now, but the last time it was updated was 2016. Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 05:00, 8 July 2018 (UTC)

I think, just to address the issues with the legality of cannabis, and the fact that this data includes prescription drugs in each class in some regions in the 2018 report, that it's best to just remove "illegal" from the table title. Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 05:29, 8 July 2018 (UTC)