YOUTHS NOT PUSHED TO DRUGS, SAYS REPORT
Young people make choices about whether to use illicit drugs and are not led
blindly into drug abuse or from one drug to another, according to a new
study.

Instead, they assess the benefits and dangers, says the report, Choosers or
Losers?, published today by the Children's Research Centre at Trinity
College Dublin.

For those who abuse drugs, "judgments about relative `safety' versus `risk'
associated with using various substances strongly influenced their drug
choices", the report by Ms Paula Mayock says.

To conduct the study, Ms Mayock spent more than a year in a Dublin
inner-city area which has had high levels of drug problems for nearly two
decades.

Among those who used illicit drugs, initiation took place on average at 12.4
years of age for young people classified as "problem drug-takers". These are
people whose drug use gives rise to personal, social or health problems.

The age of initiation was slightly higher (13.2 years) for young people
classified as "drug takers", meaning those who take drugs on a recreational
basis.

"Cannabis, followed by inhalants, dominated as the first drugs used," the
report says. "The majority of young people were introduced to illicit drug
use by a close friend or a like-aged acquaintance."

However, they saw their first use of drugs as a choice made by them, and
"the majority of young people rejected the suggestion that they were
pressurised into drug use. "Young people forwarded a range of motives for
drug-taking. The most commonly stated incentives for use included drug
availability, curiosity, pleasure and fun, peer-group membership and
interaction, and the alleviation of boredom and negative self-thought."

For the majority, cannabis use was an accepted reality and was not
considered to be a "deviant" activity. Heroin was consistently regarded as
the most dangerous of all substances. For young people who reported heroin
use at problematic levels, the time lapse between their first use of heroin
and dependence on it ranged from six months to a year. When dependence on
heroin came, it frequently took them by surprise.

The report recommends that:

"At-risk" young people need to be targeted at the earliest possible age.

Young people need information on how to reduce risks, avoid problems and
prevent abuse. This would include a "harm reduction" approach advising young
people on how to reduce the risk to their health if they are taking drugs.

Attracting young heroin-users into treatment services at the earliest
possible juncture should be seen as an issue of critical importance.