CHILDREN 'TAKING MORE DRUGS'

BRITISH children are taking more drugs and indulging in more underage
drinking than ever before, a report said today.

Research showed that 20 per cent of children aged between 11 and 15 had
used drugs last year compared to 14 per cent the year before.

The frequency of underage drinking had also increased, with 26 per cent of
children admitting they had drunk in the past week, an increase of two per
cent on the previous year. A tenth of the children surveyed regularly
smoked cigarettes.

Cannabis was also becoming more popular with school pupils, according to
research carried out for the Home Office and the Department of Health.
Thirteen per cent of children admit to using the drug, compared to one per
cent for heroin and one per cent for cocaine. Four per cent of children had
used Class A drugs.

The survey was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research and
the National Foundation for Educational Research, among more than 9,300
pupils in 285 schools in England in autumn last year.

It showed that boys drank an average of 10.6 units of alcohol last year
compared to the girls' consumption of 8.9 units. Researchers also reported
much higher levels of sniffing glue, gas, aerosols or other solvents than
they had in previous years.