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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Drug Use By Children Up To 11%
Guardian Weekly, The
Thursday 30 Nov 2000 Website: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/GWeekly/front/ Author: Patrick Wintour DRUG USE BY CHILDREN UP TO 11% Government survey finds warning to young teenagers ignored Drug misuse among school children is on the rise, with the number admitting using drugs up from 10% to 11%, according to a government survey published last week. Nearly two thirds of 15-year-olds said they had been offered drugs in the past year. The findings, which run counter to recent claims that progress is being made in the fight against drugs, showed that more than one in 10 children aged 11-15 used drugs over the past 12 months, and suggested that government efforts to stem the flow of drugs is failing. At the same time the number of regular cigarette smokers was found to be on a fairly sharp decline, especially among boys, a trend that started in the mid-1980s. Most school drug users said they had been using cannabis. Surprisingly the greatest use had been among children in reasonably affluent neighbourhoods. Users tended to be children with low expectations of good exam results and generally low esteem. The survey found that children were eight times more likely to take drugs if brothers or sisters did. "The general picture is a fairly consistent one of small increases amongst both boys and girls, particularly amongst those aged 14 and 15," say the authors. The survey, conducted among more than 9,000 secondary school children aged 11-15 in 340 schools in England, is the largest of its kind and is seen as more revealing than simple crime figures of the number of children cautioned for possessing or selling cannabis. The Government's anti-drugs co-ordinator, Keith Hellawell, chose to ignore the increase, instead praising the common sense of the majority of teenagers who had not taken drugs. The survey showed boys were more likely to take drugs than girls, by 13% to 12%. But there was a growing likelihood of drug taking as children grew older. As many as 30% of 15-year-olds had taken drugs in the previous year, but only 1% of 11-year-olds. Asian youngsters were proportionately more unlikely to take drugs, with only 7% admitting having taken drugs in the previous year, against 12% of pupils described as white. A sense of failure at school seemed to be likely to lead children to drugs, with 30% of those that said they were not doing well at school taking drugs. Drug users were four times more likely to steal. Truants and those excluded from school were five times more likely to take drugs.
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