New cannabis users outnumber new tobacco users

The number of Spaniards who said they started using cannabis in 2013 outnumbered those who said they took up smoking cigarettes, according to an Agence France Presse story citing a government study released last week.

About 169,000 Spaniards began using cannabis in 2013 compared to about 142,000 who started smoking tobacco, according to the latest annual health ministry study of drug use in Spain.

The number of cannabis users overall was slightly down but the number of people who use the drug on a daily basis increased.

‘The figures confirm the extension of the problematic pattern of consumption of this substance [cannabis],’ the head of the government’s National Drugs Plan, Francisco Babin, said in a statement.

The figures might suggest also that it is not wise to use taxes to render tobacco cigarettes unaffordable without allowing a substitute, such as electronic cigarettes, to take their place.