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UK: Government says one third of youth take illicit drugs

Reuters

Monday 09 Jul 2001

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LONDON (Reuters) - Almost a third of young people in Britain have taken
illicit drugs in the past year, a government survey has shown.

The study of more than 12,000 households conducted last year by the Office
for National Statistics (ONS) showed that 34 percent of males and 26 percent
of females in the 16 to 24 age group had used drugs, with cannabis by far
the most popular choice.

The ONS survey found that amphetamines, ecstasy and cocaine were the next
most popular drugs in the 16 to 24 age group, with their use reported by
about 5 percent of women and 10 percent of men.

Over all age groups -- the oldest people interviewed were 74 -- 8 percent of
women and 13 percent of men reported using illicit drugs in the previous year.

The statistics office did not make comparisons with its previous survey,
conducted in 1993, as the questions were phrased differently.

The findings come as the debate on the legalisation of drugs continues to
grab headlines.

The outgoing Chief Inspector of Prisons, Sir David Ramsbotham, has told BBC
radio that drugs should be legalised and available on prescription.

Sir David Ramsbotham said in a programme to be broadcast this evening that
his experience of the prison system has convinced him of the need to tackle
the drug trade as a cause of crime.

"The more I think about it and the more I look at what's happening, the more
I can see the logic of legalising drugs," he said.

"The misery that is caused by the people who are making criminal profit is
so appalling, and the sums are so great that are being made illegally...that
I think that there is merit in legalising and prescribing, or whatever, so
people don't have to go and find an illegal way of doing it," he added.

Last Friday Peter Lilley, a right winger who served in the cabinets of
former Tory Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, said cannabis
should be legalised.

 

 

 

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