Which Country Smokes the Most Weed? It's Probably Not Who You Think

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Who smokes the most cannabis?

I'm not talking about the guy at your frat who attached a gas mask to his dab rig, and did one-gram servings in a single sitting. I'm referring to national cannabis consumption rates, AKA the percentage of residents in any one country who consume cannabis.

With our rapidly expanding regulated cannabis programs and national high anxiety, it must be the US, right? Everyone I know is high, so USA #1!

Nope.

Nor is it Canada, even with their recent national legalization of cannabis, and easy access to Tim Hortons.

The place with the highest rate of cannabis consumption isn't who you would think, nor is it someplace many 'muricans could find on a map—Nigeria.

Nigerian newspaper Business Day cites two new 2019 industry outlook reports, the Global Cannabis Report and the Africa Hemp and Cannabis Report, which have determined that Nigeria pulls tougher than anyone. They've found that 19.4 percent of the country's population over the age of 15 consumed cannabis in 2018, and at least 12 percent consume it monthly. The amount spent on the gbana totals $15.3 billion a year, an astonishing amount when you consider that cannabis is illegal in Nigeria, and indeed throughout most of the continent of Africa. (Yes, including Wakanda, geo-idiots...)

The scoreboard is: Nigeria at number one with 19.4 percent, Canada in second place at 15.8 percent , and in third position, these here United States at 15 percent.

The estimated amount of cannabis consumption and spending for all of Africa is staggering: $37 billion is spent on cannabis, with Nigeria dropping the aforementioned $15.3 billion of that total, followed by $9.8 billion for Ethiopia, and $3.5 billion for Morocco, placing all three in the top 10 countries for cannabis consumption.

As Business Day reports, "The African report covers only 13 African nations; Lesotho, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Eswatini, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Morocco, and Kenya, which encompass more than 565.4 million people, and across which nearly 42.8 million are estimated to use cannabis at least annually."