Subject: UK: Drugs use declining among teenagers



Source: The Daily Telegraph (UK)



Pubdate: 1 November 1999





Drugs use declining among teenagers



TEENAGERS are turning away from "recreational" drugs such as cannabis and

ecstasy, a survey by the Schools Health Education Unit has shown.



Figures gathered from interviews with more than 18,000 school children show

that drug use among teenagers has declined for the second year running,

reversing a 10-year trend of increases.



In 1996, a third of all 14- and 15-year-old boys said they had experimented

with drugs, but that figure was 26 per cent in 1997 and 27 per cent in

1998. The most recent findings appear to confirm a continuing downward

trend in drug use which was initially dismissed as a statistical blip by

researchers.



Dr David Regis, deputy director of the Schools Health Education Unit in

Exeter, said improved drugs education in schools; the appointment of Keith

Hellawell, Government drugs "tsar"; and the high-profile deaths of

teenagers such as Leah Betts might explain the encouraging figures.



He said: "The historical trend from 1987 to 1996 was an increase year on

year, but now we believe there has been a drop. If you take these figures

at face value fewer youngsters reported taking illegal drugs. We cannot be

sure of the reason, but there has been a terrific initiative by the

Government in trying to reduce drugs levels.



"There has also been massive coverage of a few well known cases of ecstasy

deaths and this may have had an effect on youngsters, although in

school-age children the drug most experiment with is cannabis."



The research, which confirms figures released three months ago by the same

team, also showed that children were learning to differentiate between the

risks associated with hard and soft drugs. Asked which drugs they

considered most dangerous, ecstasy was listed ahead of heroin and crack

cocaine and solvents, which kill more teenagers than all other drugs.



The annual study, which has surveyed 200,000 children since 1983, also

shows the impact of the BSE scare on youngsters, with a dramatic fall in

the numbers eating red meat regularly. In 1991, around 7.5 per cent of

pupils said they ate red meat on most days, but last year the figure was

down to about four per cent.