Pathways to problems : hazardous use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs by young people in the UK and its implications for policy.

  • Great Britain. Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
Date:
[2006], ©2006
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Pathways to problems : hazardous use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs by young people in the UK and its implications for policy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    evidence that raising the purchase age and price of alcohol reduces alcohol-related problems among young people. However the real cost of alcohol has been falling in the UK, and its availability to young people has been increasing. Of all the psychoactive drug producers, the alcohol industry is at present uniquely able to market its products with all the creativity and resources it can muster. Despite intensive efforts by law enforcement agencies, the real cost of illegal drugs has tended to fall in recent years. 9. The few children who start smoking or drinking before they are 12 have typically experienced individual and family disadvantage and disturbance. Teenagers with a record of truanting or delinquency or who show other signs of behavioural problems have much higher rates of use of all drugs, as do young people who have been in care or who are homeless. Where parental supervision is lax or one or both parents use tobacco, alcohol or other drugs, hazardous use by their teenage children is more likely. School-age teenagers living with a single parent or step-parent are more likely to use drugs hazardously than those living with two natural parents, but there are many exceptions. In generai, it is difficult to predict who will develop serious problems and who will not. 10. There is some variation in drug use between ethnic groups, but there are insufficient data to reflect the growing ethnic diversity of the UK. 11. Higher levels of socio-economic disadvantage are associated with higher levels of smoking, drinking and cannabis use among girls in their mid-teens, but not among boys. From the late teens onwards, heavy smoking and problem drinking or drug use are strongly linked to socio-economic disadvantage, often with disastrous results. Multiple drug use and drug injecting are much more common in disadvantaged communities, in many of which problem drug use has become an inescapable feature of life. 12. Recent UK government policy has included welcome measures to reduce the numbers of children in poverty and a range of initiatives to protect and support vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people. If sustained, these measures may address some of the important underlying factors linked to hazardous drug use by young people. Initiatives directly to address truancy, anti-social behaviour and young offending will engage young people among whom the prevalence of hazardous drug use is particularly common, and may provide opportunities for addressing drug use. There has been a welcome recent expansion in services for young people with drug problems, particularly in England, but coverage is patchy and evidence for the effectiveness of the services is in short supply. 13. School-based programmes have been a major part of drug prevention in the UK and other countries for many years. However, systematic reviews of the available published research (mainly from the US) show that the success of these programmes in limiting the uptake of tobacco, alcohol or other drugs by young people has been slight or non-existent, and that they can actually be counter-productive. | SUONEPUBLULIODAI PUE MEINIOAQ 14. Recent reviews of current practice in schools in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland have shown that most schools are now providing drugs education across the school-age range. However, there is much inconsistency and duplication of effort, with relatively little use being made of those methods that have a better record of effectiveness. Blueprint, a large pilot schools-based programme in England and ASSIST, a peer-supported programme to prevent smoking in Wales, are both currently being evaluated. Drug testing and sniffer dogs in schools have recently become more widely used in the US. Although powers are available for their use, they remain uncommon in the UK. In the light of these findings we have made the recommendations that follow.