TEEN DRUGS CULTURE EXPOSED

A MAJOR new report, seen by the Sunday Independent, lays bare in startling
terms the culture of alcoholic drink and illicit drugs among Irish teenagers.

The report, which will be published on Tuesday, is the first major study in
four years of what is now widely regarded as one of the biggest social
problems in this country.

The main finding is that Irish youths are starting to drink at a younger
age, and that the numbers who drink frequently, and have been drunk 20
times or more, is going up.

Last week, the Health Minister, Micheal Martin, speaking in advance of the
publication of the report, warned it would contain "shocking and
intolerable" findings.

While there has been a drop in the numbers of those who have tried illegal
drugs, a significant new problem is emerging in the form of inhalant abuse.
(Inhalants include solvents, adhesives,cleaning agents and anaesthetics.)

The study found that 22 per cent of boys and 21 per cent of girls claimed
to have used inhalants, a figure which is the highest of more than 20
countries surveyed, ahead of the USA.

Yesterday the Minister for Local Development, Eoin Ryan, said the decline
in drug use and experimentation was welcome, but he said that there was "no
room for complacency".

Mr Ryan, who has responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, said he
was "surprised" by the findings in relation to inhalant abuse. "We weren't
getting a feedback that there was a problem to that extent," he said.

The percentage of Irish teenagers who smoke is remaining relatively stable,
with some indication of a drop-off among boys.

But the study found that only 56 per cent of Irish teenagers either
disapproved or strongly disapproved of smoking 10 or more cigarettes a day,
only 44 per cent felt the same about getting drunk once a week and only 57
per cent were against using marijuana or hashish once or twice a week.

It has also emerged from the study that the perception of risk among
teenagers depended on the frequency of the use of drugs. The perception of
the risk of ecstasy was quite high. The vast majority who had used illicit
drugs obtained it from someone they know quite well.

The organisers, researchers and authors of the ESPAD report (the European
School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs), have gone to great pains
to ensure that the findings reported from different European countries (and
in one instance the USA) are comparable across languages and cultures and
valid for each country surveyed.

This involved a random sample in each country of 2,500 to 3,000 students
born in 1983, ie, about 16 years old at the time of the survey in 1999. In
total, over 80,000 students were covered.

From the period from 1995 to 1999, the main findings are that:

* those who used any alcoholic beverages 20 times or more in the last 12
months has increased from 32 per cent to 39 per cent, the second highest of
21 European countries studied.

This is 12 per cent behind Denmark (51 per cent), the highest, and three
per cent higher than the UK (36 per cent), in third place.

In this category, there has been a nine per cent increase among Irish girls
and a five per cent increase among Irish boys.

* those who have been drunk 20 times or more in their lifetime has
increased from 19 per cent to 25 per cent, the fourth highest, behind
Denmark (41 per cent), the UK (29 per cent) and Finland (28 per cent).

In this category, there has been a six per cent increase among boys and a
three per cent increase among girls.

* those who have had lifetime experience of any illicit drugs has decreased
from 37 to 32 per cent. This is the third highest of the countries
surveyed, behind the UK (36 per cent) and the Czech Republic (35 per cent).
In this category, there has been a seven per cent decrease among boys and a
three per cent decrease among girls.

When marijuana or hashish is discounted, there has been a seven per cent
decrease, from 16 per cent to nine per cent, which is also the third highest.

* Ireland heads a list of 29 countries surveyed, at 22 per cent, in
relation to the percentage of students who have used inhalants.

* there has been a four per cent decrease in the numbers smoking, five per
cent among boys and three per cent among girls. Ireland is the ninth
highest in this category.

It is reasonable to accept, therefore, that Irish schoolgoers are more
familiar than most of their European peers with smoking, drinking and some
drug-taking.

The findings in Ireland will come as no surprise to those in this country
who work closely with young people. They will not be surprised by the data
which place Irish teenagers near the top of the European league in terms of
the use of tobacco, alcohol and certain illegal drugs such as cannabis and
ecstasy.