Prevalence of Cannabis Use Among Young People in the European Union

"Cannabis was the most widely used illicit drug in all ESPAD countries. On average, 12 % of students had used cannabis at least once in their lifetime. The countries with the highest prevalence of cannabis use were Czechia (24 %) and Liechtenstein (23 %), while the lowest levels of cannabis use were reported in Moldova (2.5 %) and Georgia (3.3 %). Although the overall gender gap has decreased over time, boys continued to report higher cannabis use than girls on average (13 % versus 11 %). This trend was evident in most countries, particularly in Ukraine (15 % versus 6.7 %) and Montenegro (13 % versus 6.8 %). However, Malta stood out as an exception, where cannabis use was more prevalent among girls (14 %) than boys (8.6 %).

"To estimate the risk of cannabis-related problems, a core module, the CAST (Cannabis Abuse Screening Test) scale, was included in the ESPAD questionnaire. The prevalence of high-risk cannabis users (see the methodology section for a definition) ranged from below 1 % in Moldova and Georgia, to a maximum of 5.9 % in Czechia and Slovenia. Only a few ESPAD countries reported sizeable gender differences in high-risk cannabis use, and in all cases, boys showed higher figures, except in Malta, where the prevalence was slightly higher among girls (4.4 % versus 2.6 %)."