Young drug users are not really "sad losers"
by Rachel Ellis

STEREOTYPES of young recreational drug users as "sad losers" with no career
ambitions or moral sense are totally misleading, a report published in
Britain yesterday suggests.

Most are outward going, independent young people who are trusted and
respected by their family and view drug taking as an integrated part of
their social life, according to the study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

The majority make their own decisions about taking drugs and disapprove of
"out of control" behaviour by "problem users", it claims.

The study — The Substance of Youth — argues that there is no such thing as
a national youth drug culture.

Instead, attitudes towards illicit drugs and the extent of drug taking
differ from one area to another and must be tackled at local level, it says.

Coauthor Perri 6, director of policy and research at Demos, the public
policy think tank which conducted the survey, said the report sent a tough
message to the newly appointed "drugs czar" Keith Hellawell.

"Our research adds to the evidence that there is no such thing as a
national 'drug culture' in Britain, or even 'drug cultures'," said Mr 6.

"Drugs play different roles in youth culture in different parts of the
country. One of the things we have to avoid is a 'one size fits all'
national policy."

He said the idea of an authoritarian "war" on drugs and youth culture was
"hopelessly inappropriate".

Instead, young people need information about the risks — which could be
best provided at local level, possibly through drug action teams set up by
the Conservative government to tackle local drug problems.

Mr 6 said: "The most useful role of the drugs czar would be to champion the
spread of local preventative programmes."

The study, based on a survey of 850 young people aged 16 to 24 and 100
indepth interviews, found that recreational drugs users in Kingston,
Brighton and Leeds considered illicit drugs an integrated part of their
social life and a form of relaxation, alongside alcohol. But in the
Wythenshawe district of Manchester recreational drug users were unemployed
and saw drugstaking as a means of filling time and as a substitute for a
social life. Users in a South Yorkshire mining village considered drugs an
acceptable part of their social lives.

Mr Hellawell, who is UK AntiDrugs Coordinator working in the Central
Drugs Coordinating Unit in the Cabinet Office, said: "I welcome any report
that provides further insight into the complexities of drug misuse.

"This is a very small survey compared with the Government's own regular
British Crime Survey. But this clearly demonstrates the need for local
responses to drugs problems."