Cannabis in Papua New Guinea

This review covers published information on psychoactive drugs, particularly cannabis, in Papua New Guinea. Legal drugs are mentioned to place the illegal drugs into a broader public health context. Although a number of psychoactive drugs were used traditionally (and are used now), cannabis is the only illicit drug for which prevalence of use is currently not negligible. Very little epidemiology research on cannabis use and its individual and public health sequelae has been conducted, although a fuller criminology literature on the topic exists. The published cannabis use prevalence studies are limited in scope, and the most-cited one is of questionable accuracy. The complex interactions between the health of individuals and their social environments are highlighted by the destructive impacts that cannabis cultivation, trafficking and use are having in contemporary PNG.