A NEW survey has found that a feeling of regret after getting drunk is highest in Irish people.
28% of Irish people surveyed reported feeling a sense of regret after getting drunk, according to the Global Drug Survey 2021 which was released on Wednesday.
Reasons for regret include 'drank too much too quickly', 'mixed my drinks', and 'was with big drinkers'.
Irish also get drunk 20 times a year, placing them in seventh place worldwide.
The top spot was taken by Australia, who report getting drunk 26.7 times a year, followed by Denmark and Finland (both 23.8 times) and the USA (23.1 times).
2.1% of respondents in Ireland had sought emergency care as a result of drinking alcohol, placing fifth behind Finland, Australia, Unites States and Canada.
Irish men typically contacted emergency services more than women, but women felt more regret than men.
Respondents were also asked to rate the importance of specific outcomes when drinking.
Irish people rated the amount of fun had with other people as 7.3 on a ten-point scale, the avoidance of harm as 7.4 and maximising pleasure as 6.1 - placing them between low-risk and increasing risk of alcohol dependency.
Opinions on drug use during the Covid-19 pandemic were also sought, with 59% of Irish cannabis users saying they had adopted practices to decrease risk of transmission of the virus while consuming the drug.
52% of cocaine users also adopted practices to reduce transmission.
"For many, preparing and sharing drugs is an intimate and almost essential part of the drug use experience," the report said. "Sometimes novice users need to rely on others to roll a joint or chop a line and many people who don’t buy drugs themselves are pretty reliant upon others for supply. So COVID was bound to impact the way people used drugs.
"What GDS was interested in was whether COVID led to changes in the physical environment and nature of interpersonal interactions when people used cannabis and cocaine," the report said.
However, the authors of the report noted how participants in the survey were younger and "experienced with the use of illicit drugs," and as such may not be truly representative of the countries surveyed.
Marginalised and vulnerable groups of people are also largely underrepresented online, which is where respondents were sought.
The full report can be found here.
