|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
Czech youth EU’s leading pot smokers Brian Kenety CzechPosition.com Monday 11 Jul 2011 The use of drugs, particularly among young people, is at a historically high level in the European Union, with roughly a quarter of young people participating in a Eurobarometer survey saying they have used cannabis (marijuana) — with nearly twice as many Czech respondents saying they have indulged in the "soft drug." "More precisely, 6 percent [of respondents] reported having used cannabis in the past 30 days, 8 percent in the past year and 12 percent had used it although not in the past 12 months," the current Flash Eurobarometer titled "Youth attitudes on drugs" said. "In the Czech Republic, almost half of respondents said they had used cannabis: almost a quarter (23 percent) had used it in the past year and a similar proportion (24 percent) had used cannabis, but not in the past year," the report said."France and Spain joined the Czech Republic with somewhat more than a fifth of young people who reported having used cannabis in the past year (21-22 percent)." The current Flash Eurobarometer builds on earlier surveys to measure the trend in attitudes of this target group towards drugs. In response to recent developments in the EU drug market, in the current survey, young people were also asked about their experiences with and attitudes towards new substances that imitate the effects of illicit drugs, so-called new psychoactive substances or "legal highs." This survey’s objective was to study young EU citizens' attitudes to — and perceptions about — drugs and related issues, such as: past and potential information sources about illicit drug use and the related risks and effects; perceptions about the availability of specific drugs and self-reported use of cannabis and new psychoactive substances; perceived health risks associated with occasional and regular use of various licit and illicit substances (i.e. cocaine, ecstasy, cannabis, alcohol and tobacco); attitudes towards banning or regulating illicit drugs, new psychoactive substances, alcohol and tobacco; opinions about the effectiveness of alternative drug policies. Heroin was the substance considered to be the most difficult to get hold of: 24 percent said that it would be "impossible" to obtain heroin, 36 percent thought that it would be "very difficult" and 22 percent felt it would be "fairly difficult" to get hold of this drug – if they wanted to within 24 hours. Slightly less than a tenth (8 percent) of interviewees thought that obtaining heroine would be "fairly easy" and a few respondents (5 percent) said it would be "very easy." Cocaine and ecstasy were perceived as being somewhat easier to get hold of than heroin. For illicit drugs – such as cocaine and ecstasy – Spanish, Italian and Danish respondents were consistently found at the lower end of the country rankings, with more respondents finding it "very easy" or "fairly easy" to get hold of these substances. Cypriot, Greek and Finnish interviewees, on the other hand, were more likely to say it would be "impossible" to obtain the aforementioned illicit drugs. For example, the proportion of young people who thought it would be “fairly easy” or "very easy" for them to obtain ecstasy varied between roughly a tenth in Finland (8 percent) and Luxembourg (11 percent) and three times that figure in Spain (31 percent), Ireland (32 percent), Italy (34 percent) and Denmark (35 percent). Conversely, the proportion of 15-24 year-olds who said that it would be very difficult or impossible to get hold of that drug ranged from less than a third in Spain (28 percent), Italy and Denmark (both 31 percent) to somewhat more than 7 in 10 respondents in Finland (71 percent) and Cyprus (72 percent). Although in almost all EU countries a majority of young people thought it would be"“very difficult" or "impossible" to get hold of heroin, cocaine or ecstasy, in only one country – Cyprus – did more than half of 15-24 year-olds say there would be a problem in acquiring cannabis (44 percent "impossible" and 19 percent "very difficult" responses). Respondents in the Czech Republic were the ones expecting to find the least amount of difficulty in obtaining cannabis: 51 percent thought it would be "very easy" and 24 percent "fairly easy" to obtain this substance, while a minority (12 percent) said this would be "very difficult" or "impossible." http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/society/czech-youth-eu%E2%80%99s-leading-pot-smokers
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!