Young drug users not unrespectable, says report

A 'sad loser' or not?

Stereotypes of young recreational drug users as "sad losers" are totally
misleading, according to a new report.

Most are outgoing, independent young people who are trusted and respected
by their families and view drugtaking as part of their social lives, says
the study by the Demos thinktank.

The report, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, says stereotypes of
youngsters who use illicit drugs at parties, clubs and other social
settings are misleading in the formation of antidrugs campaigns.

Britain's Labour government has appointed an antidrugs coordinator, known
as the Drugs Czar, to review laws on drugs after a heated media debate over
whether cannabis should be legalised.

Recent surveys suggest that 36% of under 29 year-olds in Britain have
experimented with drugs, with cannabis and ecstasy being the most common.

The Demos report, which questioned more than 850 young people in six
different areas of Britain, says most young drug users mature out of
drugtaking by themselves.

"The conventional stereotypes are often that young people who take drugs
are sad losers, excessive shorttermists with no conception of their
career," said Demos director Perri 6.

"Those stereotypes apply to a very, very small number of people."

Demos says the findings show that programmes which involve blanket
condemnations of drugtaking are unlikely to influence young people.

"The most useful role for the government's Drugs Czar would be to champion
the spread of local preventative programmes and to spread the word about
best practice," the report said.

According to an EU report, one in eight Britons under the age of 40 used
cannabis in the past year, more than in any other European country.

Young Britons also use more amphetamines, Ecstasy and LSD than citizens of
other EU countries, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs
and Drug Addiction.

A survey conducted in 10 private and 59 state schools, published in 1996,
found that the use of hard and soft drugs by 15 and 16yearolds had soared
in the past seven years.

Nearly half of 15 and 16yearolds admitted that they had tried illegal
drugs, with 38% of the girls and 43.6% of the boys saying that they had
tried cannabis.

In contrast, a 1989 survey of 7,000 young people in England by the Health
Education Authority found that 15% of girls and 22% of boys had used cannabis.

But fears that Britain is in the grip of an escalating drug crisis were
challenged in September after the largest survey of drug misuse yet
conducted showed that drugtaking was not part of normal behaviour for the
vast majority of young people.

The Home Office survey of 11,000 households suggested that the number of
people aged 1629 using drugs had stabilised, with no significant increase
between 1994 and 1996.

Cannabis was the most widelyused drug, followed by amphetamines, LSD,
magic mushrooms, amyl nitrate and Ecstasy.