[The use of cannabis in the Federal Republic of Germany].

Since more than 30 years cannabis is the most common illicit drug in Germany and other European countries. According to different Studies conducted in representative community samples, it can be assumed, that every fifth woman and about every third man, aged 18 to 59 years had used cannabis at least once. Epidemiologic studies also show that cannabis use is strongly associated with adolescence and young adulthood, though. Thus, cannabis consumption significantly increases from age 15, while beginning with the age 23 the proportion of cannabis consumers continuously decreases. Following the results of current studies the majority of consumers uses cannabis rather occasional. Nevertheless about 10-15% of the current consumers show patterns of cannabis dependence according to international diagnostic criteria. Although counselling centres note an increasing demand for addiction specific treatment, cannabis users still remain a small group in treatment centre statistics.