• Christian Rauschert, Justin Möckl, Nicki-Nils Seitz, Nicolas Wilms, Sally Olderbak, and Ludwig Kraus.
• IFT Institut für Therapieforschung, Munich; Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA; Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
• Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2022 Aug 8; 119 (31-32): 527534527-534.

BackgroundMonitoring the use of psychoactive substances and substance-related problems in the population allows for the assessment of prevalence and associated health and social consequences.MethodsThe data are derived from the Epidemiological Survey of Substance Abuse (ESA) 2021 (n = 9046, 18-64 years). We estimated prevalence rates of the use of tobacco, alcohol, illegal drugs, and psychoactive medications, as well as the prevalence rates of their problematic use (indicating dependence) using screening instruments, and extrapolated the results to the resident population (N = 51 139 451).ResultsAlcohol was the most frequently used substance, with a 30-day prevalence of 70.5% (36.1 million people), followed by non-opioid analgesic drugs (47.4%; 24.2 million) and conventional tobacco products (22.7%; 11.6 million). E-cigarettes were used by 4.3% (2.2 million) and heat-not-burn products by 1.3% (665 000). Among illegal drugs (12-month prevalence), cannabis was the most frequently used (8.8%; 4.5 million), followed by cocaine/crack (1.6%; 818 000) and amphetamine (1.4%; 716 000). Rates of problematic use among the study participants were 17.6% for alcohol (9.0 million), 7.8% for tobacco (4.0 million), 5.7% for psychoactive medications (2.9 million), and 2.5% for cannabis (1.3 million).ConclusionThe consumption of psychoactive substances continues to be widespread in Germany. In view of the imminent legal changes, the high prevalence of cannabis use and its problematic use need to be taken into consideration.

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