Subj: Teenagers 'smoke cannabis more than tobacco'

Date: Mar 16, 1998

Source: The Scotsman

Teenagers 'smoke cannabis more than tobacco'

JIM WILSON

TEENAGERS living in rural Scotland are more likely to smoke
cannabis than tobacco, researchers have found.

The findings of a survey, conducted by a new drugs agency in
Inverness, have emerged days after another report suggested
that young people living in rural areas were taking more
drugs than those in the inner cities.

Last night, anti-drugs campaigners claimed that increasing
evidence that illegal drugs are being widely used by young
people in rural Scotland should alert parents mistakenly
believing that drugs have not reached the countryside.

The warning came as Blast, a drugs advice and information
centre to be opened in Inverness, prepares to publish the
results of a survey designed to establish the drugs history
and attitudes of more than 300 teenagers who attended a rave
in the Highlands.

The project co-ordinator, Natalie Morel, confirmed that the
research shows that most young people questioned would be
more likely to smoke cannabis than tobacco. "Young people
know about the health implications of smoking cigarettes but
have not received the same level of information about
cannabis and other drugs," she said.

The drugs centre will open next month when the research
revealing that a range of drugs, including cannabis, ecstasy
and amphetamine, are common throughout the Highlands will be
published.

"The traditional image of drug users living only in the
bigger cities and towns no longer bears any resemblance to
the reality, if it ever did," Ms Morel said. "The only
difference is that young people living in the country find
it harder to get reliable information about those drugs. In
smaller communities, where everyone knows everyone, young
people fear that even asking for information about drugs
will gain them an unwanted reputation."

A string of remote homes across the region have been exposed
as cannabis farms in recent years and, according to Ms
Morel, the amount of high-quality amphetamine being produced
in isolated makeshift laboratories is the only reason
cocaine has not yet gained a foothold in the Highlands.

She said that dealers were common in even the smallest
villages and, if necessary, young people would often send a
representative to bigger towns to buy drugs to be shared.

"They will commonly travel to Inverness, but even here there
is a fear of being recognised and some will go down to
Dundee to get whatever the order is," she said.

"People have to forget about this notion that young people
living in the country have straw behind their ears and have
no idea about drugs."

The start of the drugs centre in Inverness, featuring a
telephone helpline, comes as Drugs Action, an Aberdeen
information and support agency, prepares to recruit an
outreach worker to offer support, counselling and advice
exclusively to users in rural areas.

Increasing rural drug use has also been highlighted in a
survey by the Schools Health Education Unit suggesting that
more young people living in the countryside take drugs than
in the inner cities.

Pupils at Scottish schools were questioned, along with
teenagers in five English health board regions before the
report, Young People and Drugs 1998, concluded that almost a
third of 14 and 15-year-olds living in rural areas admitted
taking one or more illegal drugs compared to less than 20
per cent in inner-cities.

Researcher David Regis, of the respected research unit based
at Exeter University, said the results of the survey were
surprising.

"That particular finding should dispel any remaining belief
that drugs are solely an inner-city problem," he said.

Research has already suggested young Scots take more drugs
than teenagers anywhere else in Europe, while another report
revealed they go out more than counterparts in most other
countries.