LABOUR, DL DEMAND BETTER DRUGS ADVICE FOR YOUNG

Labour and Democratic Left have called for changes in education programmes
on drugs for young people, after a survey showed that Irish students take
more drugs than the EU average.

The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs, the results of
which were published in yesterday's Irish Times, showed Irish students
drink more, get drunk more and smoke more than the typical European student.

It also showed that 37 per cent of 16yearold Irish students had used
cannabis at some stage.

Labour's health spokesman, Mr Derek McDowell, said yesterday that the
results "highlight the need for a professional youth service through which
young people at risk of becoming drugabusers can be identified at an early
stage".

He said drugs education programmes should explain specifically the harm
done by each drug.

"It's not sufficient to tell children that all drugs are equally harmful,"
he said. The legal availability of drugs could also be seen by young people
as conferring legitimacy on them, he said. "The drug that kills most
people, tobacco, is legal," Democratic Left's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz
McManus, said the results were alarming.

"What is most alarming is that this is a survey of those who are still
legally children, under the legal age for the purchase of alcohol and just
barely at the age when cigarettes can be legally bought," she said.

"The extent of the use of tobacco and alcohol among the 16yearolds is
extremely serious, and the level of use of illegal drugs is frightening."

She called for a review of programmes for teenagers geared towards the
prevention of drug abuse, and said such programmes should be aimed at
younger children as well.