PARIS, ROME, MANCHESTER: YOUTH ON DRINK AND DRUGS

Paris: 'Getting drunk is pathetic, girls laugh at you' Drinking, or rather
getting drunk, said Emmanuelle, wasn't very cool. Smoking was for show -
she would stop soon, and anyway she had read you could puff away until the
age of 30 without doing permanent damage.

A joint, however, was a treat. "Saturday nights, for sure, why not?" asked
the 16-year-old. "It's less dangerous than drinking spirits. Most of my
friends smoke shit [French for dope] from time to time, but I wouldn't say
anyone had a habit."

It surprised few of the students outside the gates of the Lycee Lamartine
in central Paris that French adolescents are in third place on the list of
European teenagers who had used marijuana at least once during their lifetime.

"It's forbidden fruit, isn't it?" said Thomas, 17. "The police are so
strict, you hear absurd warnings, of course you want to try. I bet in
Holland no one bothers."

The French are by far Europe's heaviest drinkers, consuming 11.9 litres of
pure alcohol a year, two-thirds of it as wine. Alcohol is responsible for
25% of all hospitalisations and 50,000 deaths a year.

But France is well below the European average for child alcohol abuse, with
only 4% of French 15- and 16-year-olds reporting having got drunk 20 times
or more, against 29% in Britain. "I don't see the point in getting drunk,"
said Pierre-Olivier, 16. "Everyone laughs at you, girls think its pathetic."

The French are a nation of committed smokers: ac cording to government
figures, 34% of the population smokes, including 60% of 18-20 year-olds, a
quarter of all pregnant women, and even one in three doctors.

But among French teenagers, only 14% of 15- and 16-year-olds said they were
smoking daily by the age of 13, against 20% of British adolescents. The
Lycee Lamartine students did not believe that. "It can't be true," said
Thomas. "Two-thirds of my friends smoke. I was in Birmingham last year and
it's a lot harder for kids to smoke in England than it is here." Jon Henley

Rome: 'It's only losers who like to lose control' At the end of the week
young Italians like to go crazy on Saturday night - bingeing on one, two,
maybe even three drinks.

Any more might induce that buzzing in the head which they regard as a
handicap to socialising, not an aid. Only losers lose control.

"I had a boyfriend once who used to get drunk. It was disgusting. He
couldn't dance properly, he sweated. Who wants that?" said Claudia, 18.

Three friends beside her at the Spanish Steps in Rome nodded. "Some boys do
drink too much at the weekends. In our disco there's a group who take four
beers each," said Valentina, 16.

Girls limit themselves to two, they said. It is all about keeping your
bella figura. Partly that means waistline but mostly image. "I don't want
to be drunk. People would stare. You would look dumb, it is dumb," said
Maura, 17.

Surveys show Italy's wine consumption falling among virtually all
categories, but especially teenagers. "We prefer beer because wine is for
old people and families. Also beer is cheaper," said Claudio Grignetti, 16.
Being served is not a problem as long as you go to the right bars, cafes
and discos.

From 1975 to 1995 the average 15- to 25-year-old's annual consumption of
pure alcohol dipped from 1.89 litres to 1.1.

Italians who return after studying abroad, especially in Britain, stand out
in pre ferring pints of draught over bottles.

According to the Permanent Observatory on Young People and Alcohol in Rome,
a hard core of just over one in 10 has a serious drink problem.

They can occasionally be spotted staggering from the dozens of British and
Irish-style pubs in virtually every Italian city. Having no drinking
culture means they drink on empty stomachs and weave home on scooters. It
does not help that measures vary: one bar's triple is another's single.
Rory Carroll

Manchester: 'Everyone we know is desperate for pills' On Sunday night, Zoe,
16, went to a designer bar in Manchester, drank £50 worth of Smirnoff Ice,
smoked 40 cigarettes, tripped on the kerb and still made it home for
midnight, because her mum trusts her.

"You have to have a drink to have a laugh. I don't eat before I go drinking
because it makes me look bloated. So I get pissed quite easily. I'm in
control and I know when to stop. I always stop just before I puke," she said.

Zoe and her best friend Kelly are from Suffolk. They are doing their GCSEs
and are among the brightest in their class. They have come to Manchester to
see the bars. They both started smoking at 12 and going to clubs at 13. On
a school week, if they only go out three times, they drink about 12 litres
of alcopops and smoke 150 cigarettes each.

"We're no different to your average teenagers. If we don't go out, we get
alcopops, a bottle of Jack Daniels, and a bottle of vodka, and cane it at
home on the sofa," said Zoe.

"Everyone's on pills. Everyone we know is desperate for pills. But I don't
touch drugs because I saw my teenage sister's best friend die from a heroin
overdose," said Kelly.

"We come from a nice village in Suffolk. There's nothing to do except
drink. We don't even have a youth club."

Neville, 16, goes to sixth-form college in Manchester, where there is an
excess of activities for teenagers, "but the best thing is getting lagered".

At the pub, Neville drinks five or six pints of Stella and smokes 20
cigarettes in the first two hours. He eats chips to line his stomach. "Once
a week, we aim to get totally bladdered. We go to a mate's flat, get a
crate of cans and some brandy. I drink 10 cans of lager and half a bottle
of brandy in shots. Then I do an eighth of weed. The others, who are 16,
drop pills, like ectasy. They get a rush and I start laughing." Angelique
Chrisafis