CANNABIS CAMPAIGN DROP THE STEREOTYPES, THEN WE'LL SEE PROGRESS

Until we understand how young people use drugs, their misuse will continue
to be a mystery, says Dr Helen Perry of Demos

"Young drug users are antiestablishment and antisocial," and, "British
youth has never been in greater need of oldfashioned moral stiffening."
What sets these two statements apart? Very little, except their source
the former is from a report by the Home Office and the latter from a leader
written by a tabloid newspaper in response to research carried out by Demos
into the place of drugs in young people's lives, published by the Joseph
Rowntree Foundation this week. On the other hand, there are equally stark
proclamations from crude libertarians, such as Howard Marks, who advocate
legalisation and suggest parents and children should experiment together
with illicit drugs.

The drugs debate in Britain is hopelessly polarised. Neither extreme is
helpfully to inform attempts to deal with drugs misuse in Britain. Our
report sought to define a new foundation for the drugs debate, based on a
clear understanding of how young people decide to use or not a whole
range of drugs, both legal and illegal.

Overcoming the current polarisation of the drugs debate would place Britain
in an exceptional position, historically and internationally. But our
research indicates that before anysuch revolution is achieved, two key
myths about young people and drugs need to be debunked.

First, a widely held view of young people is that, in general they use
drugs. And indeed, according to some surveys, 50 per cent or so of young
people report having tried drugs at least once. But this figure wraps up
young people who try drugs only once, or use them intermittently or
recreationally, with those who are problem drug users. By lumping all young
drug users together, the fact that the vast majority of young people who
use drugs recreationally "mature out" in the their mid to late20s is
lost. The remaining 50 per cent of young people have never tried drugs.

Second, a widelyheld view of young drug users is that they are in some way
weaker and more easily influenced than their nonusing peers. Yet our
research found that those who use drugs recreationally are much like young
people in general they trust and respect their families, have aspirations
for the future and maintain that outofcontrol behaviour is unacceptable.

In most areas of Britain, drugs are integrated in the patterns of leisure
available to the young. But that is not to say that drugs and drug use are
necessarily the dominant feature in young people's lives. Both using and
not using drugs can be part of a young person's statement of independence.
So, contrary to the peer pressure argument, a young person from a deprived
region such as the Manchester area of Wythenshawe, where problem drug use
is widespread, is as likely to make a statement of individual identity by
not using drugs, as a peer in a more affluent area is to express such
individualism by trying drugs.

Most young people are not interested in spending their evenings out of
their heads on street corners. Equally, though, many are struggling with
the reality that, in some areas, there is little else to do. The challenge
for policy makers is to understand and acknowledge that young people who
use drugs recreationally see themselves as having made a choice about their
leisure time, and so are otherwise not particularly different from their
nondrugusing peers.

Programmes which aim to stigmatise young drug users tend to push young
people away from policymakers and active engagement in British civic life.
Stigmatisation reduces young people's willingness to contribute to drugs
safety and avoidance campaigns, let alone to contribute to wider, important
debates about life in Britain. Until the reality of young people's
attitudes and behaviour are understood, the opportunity to establish a
constructive and resultsoriented approach to drugs misuse in Britain is
limited.

Most importantly, by allowing the drugs debate to ossify into a simple
polarisation between arguments for enforcement versus legalisation, nothing
has been achieved beyond, at best, the disengagement and, at worst, the
alienation of British youth. The truth is that both sides have got it wrong
not least from the perspective of young people.

'The substance of youth: the place of drugs in young people's lives today',
by Perri 6, Ben Jupp, Helen Perry and Kristen Lasky, is published by the
Joseph Rowntree Foundation, price [pounds]163;11.95. Copies can be ordered
from JRF on 01904 629 241.