International students smoke a lot of weed

Cannabis use among international students in Groningen is significantly higher than among Dutch students, according to researchers Arne van der Bos (Hanze UAS), ), Rick Nijkamp and Bert Bieleman (Intraval, University of Groningen).  They did a research among 334 international students and, as a reference, 142 Dutch students, all studying in the city of Groningen. The researchers think that the high consumption of cannabis ‘may be explained by the misguided idea about the Netherlands that exists among international students.’ The international students tend to ‘think that (daily) use of cannabis is not disapproved by society. Moreover, international students have the impression that in the Netherlands, cannabis is used more often than elsewhere in Europe, while international research shows that this is not the case.’

German and Eastern-European students are the biggest potheads, while Asian students tend to smoke the least

German and Eastern-European students are the biggest potheads, while Asian students tend to smoke the least. 88 percent of Eastern-European students who participated in the survey said they smoked a joint at least once in their lives, 59 percent smoked a blunt in the last month. Germans take it just a little bit more easy: 81 percent has smoked a doobie before, 54 percent in the last month. By way of comparison, among the Dutch respondents, 63 percent said they smoked ganja, of which 29 percent in the last month. The majority of Asian students is not too keen on the mary jane: only 45 percent tried grass before, 18 percent rolled one in the last month. Southern-European students are in between, 76 percent smoked a porro before, 61 percent smoked some maría in the last month.

According to the researchers, it is not the tolerant climate in the Netherlands that urges foreign students to smoke chronic. It is more like the country has a strong appeal for international students that have affinity with cheeba cheeba. The majority of the international students that said they have used pot before, smoked a spliff in their home country first. Just 18 percent said they smoked their first herb in the Netherlands. 43 percent of the students does admit that they started smoking more regularly since they have moved to Holland.

International students believe that over 40 percent of the Dutch have smoked reefer

It’s striking that the tolerant policy that the Dutch have towards marihuana makes the international students believe that over 40 percent of the Dutch have smoked reefer. Quite a difference with the actual number: ‘only’ one in four Dutch have ever smoked the bionic. The researchers also find it striking that the Dutch stereotypes of windmills, tulips and lots of weed apparently are not really modified once students arrive here. ‘A possible explanation could be that international students do not hang out with Dutch people much, which might cause this misguided image of the Dutch to persist. International students often stick together in international student houses and student organizations, which is why they cannot take notice of the Dutch opinion about cannabis use.’