Why so much illicit drugs consumed in Australia?

Amphetamine use: Australia #1 in the world (New Zealand comes 3rd)

Cannabis use: Australia #2 in the world (right after New Zealand)

nationmaster.com/graph/lif_amp_use-lifestyle-amphetamine-use

nationmaster.com/graph/lif_can_use-lifestyle-cannabis-use

I'm going to live in Sydney, but first, I'd like to know why with such a pleasant country, wonderful climate etc....... do they need to consume illicit drugs Much More than they do in Canada..?

I don't know, it's a tough question.

Australia is an island and it is impossible to keep track of every square metre of coastline so I guess some drugs will always slip through. Australia spends a fortune protecting our waters but unfortunately there is a lot of coastline where no one lives therefore can't be monitered so drugs are getting into the country a lot easier. That and the fact there are probably numerous labs out in the middle of no where and are hidden because the country is so big. The more there is, the more afordable the drugs become.

Not sure how true this is but that's my theory anyway.

Nationmaster.com takes their data from the CIA Factbook? If there's one thing my MBA has taught me, don't trust graphs!

Are you looking for business opportunities?

The question is whether the people you know or where you live will experience the effects of drug problems. Where I live in Sydney I don't see any effects of amphetamine or cannabis use. I also live in Vancouver, the cannabis capital of Canada, and I see a lot more drug use here.

Spend some time in downtown Sydney and then downtown Vancouver and you'll see stark comparisons. There are tons of homeless people and drug users in downtown Vancouver - I don't see them lined up in Sydney.

I moved from Vancouver to Melbourne, and I saw a lot of drug use in BOTH cities. If you want to stay out of drug culture, it's very easy to. If you don't, it's very easy not to. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

A friend of mine was moving to Hobart for schooling purposes (he was a CDN with a bit of a cannibis problem) and I joked and said you shouldn't have any issues with cannibis there, but I was wrong. Within days he found the right contants to get his cannibis. The thing is this is everywhere...even growing up in Canada I had probably 80% of my highschool (in a nice suburban area) involved with at least occasional cannibis use...many Canadians still think it's a harmless drug (until you have to deal with the schizo's at 3am in the ED). Bottomline is consumption is pretty high in both countries, and if you go looking for it you will find it.