Tougher drug laws have not resulted in lowering the number of people who smoke cannabis

The government’s zero tolerance drug policy has had little effect on the country’s pot smokers, according to a new report showing that Danes smoke more cannabis than any other Europeans.

In the report released last week by the EU’s European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Danes ranked first when it came to what percentage of a country’s population had smoked cannabis at least once, with 38.6 percent saying they’d done so.

The high figures are despite a toughening of the nation’s drug laws over the past several years.

Italians came in second in the study with a 31.2 percent figure, while the overall EU average was 22 percent.

The survey data indicated it was especially people aged 15-34 who boosted Denmark’s figures. For that group, 48 percent had smoked cannabis at least once in their lives.

By contrast, the average for all of Europe’s 15-34 year-olds was 31 percent.

Kari Grasaasen, an advisor with the Board of Health, said Denmark’s liberal alcohol and hash culture was a clear reason for the high figures.

‘We know that it’s often young people who drink a lot that also smoke pot,’ she told Berlingske Tidende newspaper.

‘The Board of Health and other authorities have to continue to report on the drug’s harmful effects and register the actual number of cannabis related medical problems.’