WHY MORE YOUNG PEOPLE SAY CANNABIS IS A DRAG

There is a steady downward trend in the popularity of cannabis amongst
British teenagers and the reason could be down to changing attitudes
towards cigarette smoking, according to European drugs experts.

The EU drugs agency estimates that 17.5 million young Europeans
between 15 and 34 used cannabis in the last year - 13% of young adults
- - but there are "stronger signals" that its popularity is beginning to
wane, especially among British school students. The European drug
experts say that the percentage of young Britons who have smoked
cannabis in the last year has declined from 20% in 2000 to 15.6% in
2007.

Public health campaigns about the dangers of tobacco smoking may lie
behind the change.

"A lot of young people are strongly anti-cigarette smoking and as
society changes the way it views tobacco it seems to be changing
attitudes to cannabis as well," said Paul Griffiths, of the European
monitoring centre for drugs and drug abuse.

The trend is evident across Europe, where smoking bans are now
widespread. The drug experts say cannabis use has always been more
prevalent amongst tobacco smokers than among non-smokers and as it
becomes less socially acceptable to smoke a cigarette in public so it
has become more difficult to find a place to smoke a joint.

Even with the growing popularity of homegrown herbal cannabis instead
of the traditional Moroccan imported resin, joints are still usually
rolled using tobacco, which appears increasingly to be the deciding
factor against smoking dope for a growing number of teenagers.