ONE-THIRD OF IRISH YOUTHS HAVE BEEN OFFERED DRUGS

PARENTS are living in ignorance of the fact that over one-third of Irish
teenagers have been offered drugs according to the findings of a new
national survey.

Boys and girls were targeted equally and the dangers increased
significantly as the children grew into the higher risk age category of 15
to 17.

The survey carried out by Landsdowne Market Research revealed that the
teenage drugs problem is three times worse than parents imagine with 5% of
urban based parents guessing that their children had ever sampled drugs.

Incredibly, the drugs epidemic seemed to have escaped the farming community
as the survey found that many rural parents believed that their children
had never been targeted by drug dealers. The reality was that nearly one in
ten of teenagers from farming homes had been offered narcotics.

Cannabis was found to be the drug of choice with 15% of older teenagers
admitting to trying it, with Ecstasy quite far behind in second place. Acid
and speed came in at joint third place.

While one in twenty teenagers had sampled some form of cannabis by the age
14, the figure had tripled for those in the older age bracket, so that by
the time Irish teenagers are getting ready to sit the Leaving Cert,
particularly those living in urban areas, one in every six will already
have experimented with outlawed drugs or one kind or another, the research
discovered.

Most of the drugs offered to the teenagers was through the locality or at
the disco, but shockingly, a high percentage of teenagers said they were
offered drugs both inside and outside school.

The only good news in the survey found that the message that Ecstasy can
not only kill but has major psychological and physical side-effects seems
to be getting across with more that seven out of ten teenagers stating that
it was "very dangerous."

A member of the National Parents Council (post-primary) said the survey
merely highlighted the point that when it comes to drugs, parents still had
not opened their minds to the fact that their children were open to
temptation from a very early age to both drink and drugs.

Irish Director of European Cities Against Drugs Con O'Leary said that when
it came to drugs, children were far more clued in to what was going on than
parents and parents have to realise that drugs are now a fact of life.

"A lot of parents don't know and they don't want to know because it is an
inconvenience to have your eyes open and to be aware. It is much easier to
have your head in the sand and think that it is always the child around the
corner, the child down the road and never their own," he said.

The Cork City Councillor said they were three types of drug users in
Ireland; the first kind are hard-core drug takers who literally want to pop
'til they drop, second are the hard-core drug users who want to stop, and
the third are the kids in school who are just beginning to experiment.

Cllr O'Leary believed that the first group could be used as an example to
the third group through hard-hitting videos and seminar presentations.

"Present children with the facts. Let them know the terrible side-effects
of drugs, the effect on their kidneys, fertility, teeth, skin, all the rest
then let them decide their own future," he said.