DRUGS USE DECLINING AMONG TEENAGERS

Teenagers are turning away from "recreational" drugs such as cannabis
and ecstasy, a survey by the Schools Health Education Unit has shown.

Figures gathered from interviews with more than 18,000 school children
show that drug use among teenagers has declined for the second year
running, reversing a 10-year trend of increases.

In 1996, a third of all 14- and 15-year-old boys said they had
experimented with drugs, but that figure was 26 per cent in 1997 and
27 per cent in 1998. The most recent findings appear to confirm a
continuing downward trend in drug use which was initially dismissed as
a statistical blip by researchers.

Dr David Regis, deputy director of the Schools Health Education Unit
in Exeter, said improved drugs education in schools; the appointment
of Keith Hellawell, Government drugs "tsar"; and the high-profile
deaths of teenagers such as Leah Betts might explain the encouraging
figures.

He said: "The historical trend from 1987 to 1996 was an increase year
on year, but now we believe there has been a drop. If you take these
figures at face value fewer youngsters reported taking illegal drugs.
We cannot be sure of the reason, but there has been a terrific
initiative by the Government in trying to reduce drugs levels.

"There has also been massive coverage of a few well known cases of
ecstasy deaths and this may have had an effect on youngsters, although
in school-age children the drug most experiment with is cannabis."

The research, which confirms figures released three months ago by the
same team, also showed that children were learning to differentiate
between the risks associated with hard and soft drugs. Asked which
drugs they considered most dangerous, ecstasy was listed ahead of
heroin and crack cocaine and solvents, which kill more teenagers than
all other drugs.

The annual study, which has surveyed 200,000 children since 1983, also
shows the impact of the BSE scare on youngsters, with a dramatic fall
in the numbers eating red meat regularly. In 1991, around 7.5 per cent
of pupils said they ate red meat on most days, but last year the
figure was down to about four per cent.