The use of bhang among Kenyans has almost doubled over the last five years with a 90 per cent increase over that period.
Latest data from the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada) shows that one in every 53 Kenyans aged 15-65 years (518,807) are currently using cannabis, translating to a national prevalence rate of 1.9 per cent.
The report dubbed 'Status of Drugs and Substance Use (DSU) in Kenya, 2022' says of this figure, 475,770 are male while 43,037 are female.
"Nairobi region had the highest prevalence of current use of cannabis (6.3 per cent) followed by Nyanza (2.4 per cent) and Coast (1.9 per cent)," the report said.
It showed that a total of 193,430 youth aged 15 – 24 years (one in every 37) were currently using cannabis translating to a 2.7 per cent prevalence.
The figure for those aged 25 – 35 years stands at 174,142 (one in every 48) translating to a 2.1 per cent prevalence rate.
The data shows that overall, 234,855 Kenyans aged 15 – 65 years or one in every 111 are addicted to cannabis are exhibit severe substance use disorders.
The number of bhang addicts in the 15-24 age bracket stands at 90,531 (one in every 77); 25-35-year-olds is 100,468 or one in every 83, giving an overall addiction rate of 47.4 per cent.
"The growing demand for cannabis especially among the youth could be attributed to the low perception of harm due to myths, misinformation, and misconceptions," the report noted.
The study, done in 2022, was a five-year survey conducted to assess the trends of drugs and substance use programming indicators.
It was a follow-up survey to the 2007, 2012 and 2017 five-year surveys.
It was conducted in selected clusters spread across the 47 counties in the country and sampled Kenyans aged 15 to 65 years.
The total number of individual interviews received was 3,314, translating to an individual response rate of 87 per cent.
"The results show that tobacco products, alcohol and khat had the highest overall awareness at 97 per cent, 95 per cent and 88 per cent, respectively," the report notes.
Data found that the average age at which the youth are introduced to bhang use is eight years.
As a result, drug and substance use resulted in moderate to severe depression in 209,582 Kenyans aged 15-65.
"The risk of depressive disorder among users of cannabis was 2.3 times higher compared to non-users," the report revealed.
