Falling Drug Use Among Young People
Date: 14 Oct 2009
Latest National Surveys Report Falling Drug Use Among Young People
Use of alcohol and other drugs, amongst children and young people, continues to fall according to the latest figures from the NHS information centre and the Home Office.
These general national trends have also been reflected in Wiltshire surveys of young people. Although the number of young people who say they have never drunk or do not drink now continues to grow, young people who are drinking are doing so in larger quantities, with those who parents regularly drink, are three times more likely to consume alcohol.
Annual Cannabis use among 16-24 year olds has fallen from a peak of 28% of young people in 1998 to 18.7% in 2008-09. As in previous years, the overall decline in drug use is explained by falling rates of Cannabis, the most commonly used illegal drug. 9% had used Cannabis in the last year, down from 13.4% in 2001. Numbers of young people who have tried smoking are down from 53% in 1982 to 32%, with more smokers finding it difficult to buy cigarettes from shops. Most regular smokers over-estimated the number of their peers who smoked. 33% have also been offered drugs, down from 42% in 2001.
How Young People See Drug Education
Teachers were seen as the most useful source of information about drugs by young people.
- 95% of pupils who recalled lessons about drugs said that they helped them think about the risks of taking drugs.
- Most pupils felt that school lessons had helped them realise that taking drugs was against the law (85%), to avoid taking drugs (81%), or to think about what they would do if they were offered drugs (79%).
Eric Carlin of the Drug Education Forum saw this of evidence that "despite claims to the contrary it is clear that drug education is being delivered within a moral context".
- Pupils were less likely to report that school lessons had helped them see that not as many young people took drugs as they thought (41%) which may indicate that there is further work to be done in addressing misperceptions or overestimations of young peoples drug use.
The two documents can be found here:
‘Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England in 2008' http://www.ic.nhs.uk/
‘Drug Misuse Declared: Findings from the 2008/09 British Crime Survey' http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/
Media Coverage
Although the BBC website reported this news under the headline "Teen drink and drug use declining", some newspapers including The Independent and The Daily Mail, ran cover stories under the headline "Cocaine Britain", referring to a short term rise in the use of cocaine powder (from 5.1% to 6.6% in the last year). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8165107.stm
