The report about World Marijuana use, published by United Nations in 2012, revealed a very curious fact about a tiny group of islands in the middle of Pacific Ocean. The rate adult cannabis consumption in Palau was 24.2% for the year 2011, the second world highest rate, right after Papua New Guinea.
The findings of this study caused great controversy when they appeared in the media, because one year after, in 2011 another report published by United Nations about alcohol and health, Palauan people use to drink daily more beer per person than any other region or nation in the whole world.
Many people began to think that the archipelago of Palau would become no only “The Beer Nation” but also a new sort of the ultimate vacation haven for pot smokers.
Papua New Guinea, also in Oceania, has a much higher ratio of cannabis use (29.5%) but these percentage is old data, (collected by the UN in 1995) and also this country, and especially its capital (Port Moresby) are very dangerous places even for papuan citizens.
So in 2012 when the report were published, almost half the weed lovers began to look to Palau. A tropical place with beer and pot everywhere, the perfect spot for cannabis vacation time.
But what part of reality are on those numbers from United Nations?
How can be possible that a country formed by more than three hundred volcanic islands, and a population of 20,000 people, has such high percentages of weed usage?
Not so fast.
Let’s see what natives say about this. According to local authorities from Palau, the report’s findings from UN are incorrect.
“It’s inconceivable that a quarter of the population uses cannabis.” – Emery Wenty, a director for the Ministry of Education in Palau, 2012 –
A write/up arranged by the BBC in 2012, tried to find out whether Palau was truly the place where more Cannabis was used, or not. Reporters found that the myth of Palau as the place with more marijuana usage in the world (after Papua New Guinea), was not exactly true.
The reason for this mistake?
The numbers.
Just imagine that you are a UN employee and you have to interview palauan people about the use of cannabis. Would you be able to travel through more than three hundred islands asking people for your survey?. No way!
The reality is that the surveys used to make United Nation’s report, only took data from the more populated city in Palau, Koror, and always from areas with high rates of young population.
Anyway, although Palau archipelago is not the ‘New Jamaica’, seems a very interesting place to know about. Who knows? Perhaps there is some lost island over there, with ancient unknown tribes of native stoners enjoying local grass, away from U.N’s surveys and living apart from civilization.
Without doubt a place for the best cannabis vacations of our lives!
