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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Report reveals pre-teens on drugs
Sue Leonard The Sunday Times
Sunday 31 Aug 2003 THOUSANDS of children as young as 10 have tried cannabis at least once, a study due to be published this week will reveal, writes Sue Leonard. The report by Professor Neil McKeganey, head of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at Glasgow University, will also show a smaller number of pre-teen children have taken hard drugs, including heroin and cocaine. The figures will cause fresh concerns over children's exposure and access to drugs, coming just days after the executive announced that the number of drug-related deaths in Scotland rose by 15% to a record 382 in 2002. Last year The Sunday Times revealed that preliminary results from McKeganey's research involving several thousand children from Glasgow and Newcastle found some as young as 10 had taken illegal hard drugs. The study, the first of its kind into the problem among primary school children, found a "significant minority" aged between 10 and 12 were taking drugs. The government-funded study was sparked by the death in 1998 of 13-year-old Alan Harper in Glasgow, the youngest victim of heroin in Britain. McKeganey's report will reveal widespread experimentation with cannabis outside of school.
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