It is not surprising that the lifetime prevalence of cannabis is increasing, as the generation effect (people above a certain age are highly unlikely to have used cannabis, so as time progreses there are more and more people who have grown up in the cannabis era) will automatically cause this figure to go up. In order to judge what is really happening with the popularity of cannabis in Amsterdam, the figures on recent use and the use per age group are much more revealing. Looking at recent use, it can be seen that cannabis use has increased until 1997, and has stabilized ever since. At the same time continuation rates for cannabis have decreased, suggesting that although more people have experience with cannabis, relatively more of those quit using.