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Drug use, smoking and drinking among young people in England in 2001

  • Document type:
    Publication
  • Author:
    Department of Health
  • Published date:
    3 December 2002
  • Primary audience:
    Professionals
  • Product number:
    0113225911
  • Gateway reference:
    2002
  • Pages:
    241
  • Copyright holder:
    Crown Copyright

The main purpose of this survey is to monitor smoking, drinking and drug use amongst secondary school children aged 11-15 years. Information has been obtained from more than 9,000 pupils in 285 schools throughout England and the 2001 survey focuses on drug use. Due to changes in question format, the estimates of drugs taking are not compatible with those of previous surveys. Key findings include that 29 per cent of the overall sample had ever tried one or more drugs, 20 per cent had taken drugs in the last year, and 12 per cent had done so within the last month; with boys slightly more likely than girls to have taken drugs. Figures rise as pupils get older with 48 per cent of 15 year olds having tried drugs and 29 per cent having taken them in the last year. Cannabis was the most widely taken drug. Reported levels of misuse of volatile substances, such as glue sniffing, were much higher than in previous surveys, although this may be due to change in question format. Stationery Office Publication

Summary of main findings

Prevalence of drug use (Chapter 2)

  • In 2001, 29% of pupils reported that they had ever tried one or more drugs, 20% had taken drugs in the last year and 12% had done so in the last month. Boys were slightly more likely than girls to have taken drugs - among boys 13% had taken drugs in the last month and 21% had taken drugs in the last year, compared with 11% and 19% respectively among girls.
  • As pupils get older, they become much more likely to take drugs: only 3% of 11 year olds and 4% of 12 year olds had taken drugs in the last month, but 24% of 15 year olds had. Almost half (48%) of 15 year olds had ever tried drugs at some point and 29% had taken drugs in the last year.
  • It is not possible to compare these figures with 2001 with the results from previous surveys in the series due to changes in the structure and wording of questions. However responses to other questions (such as drug use among friends and attitudes towards experimentation with drugs) suggest that the increase in drug taking reported between 1998 and 2000 has probably continued into 2001.
  • Cannabis was by far the most widely taken drug. Thirteen per cent of pupils reported taking this drug in the last year. Seven per cent had sniffed volatile substances. Every other individual drug had been taken in the last year by no more than 3% of pupils, with a total of 4% taking any Class A drug in the last year. At age 15, four in ten had taken at least one drug in the last twelve months, most of whom had taken cannabis. Nine per cent had taken at least one Class A drug, though cocaine and heroin had respectively been taken in the last year by only 3% and 1% of 15 year olds.

Volatile substances (Chapter 3)

  • Reported levels of misuse of volatile substances (sniffing or inhaling glue, gas, aerosols or other solvents) were much higher than in previous surveys in the series, although this is almost certainly due to the change in question format rather than a sudden change in the actual levels of misuse.
  • The patterns of prevalence of misuse of volatile substances were different to those seen for other behaviours. Older pupils were more likely than younger pupils to smoke, drink or take cannabis, but misuse of volatile substances did not show a strong relationship with age. Use of volatile substances in the last year was highest among 13 and 14 year olds at 9% and lowest among 11 year olds at 4%.
  • It is possible to distinguish between first time users of a drug in the last year and 'repeat' users by comparing the age at which pupils first took a drug with their current age. Despite the relatively high prevalence of pupils who had ever sniffed volatile substances, repeat usage was low - the proportion of pupils who were classified as repeat users of volatile substances was 4% or less for each age group. In contrast repeat use of cannabis increased with age - less than 1% of 11 year olds were repeat users of cannabis, but this had increased to 16% of 15 year olds.
  • For each drug, pupils who had ever tried it were asked at what age they first tried it. From this it is possible to work out at what age pupils first tried drugs and which drugs were taken by them at this age.
  • Pupils tended to have only tried one drug at the age when they first tried drugs, with 45% reporting that they had only sniffed volatile substances and 41% reporting that they had only tried cannabis at the age when they had first tried drugs. The similarity in the overall percentages having tried only volatile substances or only cannabis masks a very strong relationship with the age at which drugs were first tried. Eighty-six per cent of pupils whose first use of drugs was at aged 10 or younger took volatile substances
  • and no other drugs at that age compared with 7% who took only cannabis. In contrast, among pupils whose first use of drugs was at age 15, 74% took cannabis and no other drugs at that age compared with 8% who took only volatile substances.
  • There was a stronger link between taking cannabis and smoking and drinking than there was between taking volatile substances and smoking and drinking. Around half of those who had taken cannabis in the last year were regular smokers and half usually drank at least twice a week, whereas among those who had taken volatile substances in the last year the equivalent proportions were both around a third.
  • It is possible to determine whether taking volatile substances, cannabis or smoking or drinking are risk factors for later use of Class A drugs by restricting analysis to pupils who are currently aged 15, and had not taken Class A drugs by age of 13.
  • By looking at this group, it is possible to see which behaviours at 13 were most likely to predict whether pupils had taken Class A drugs by 15. Fifteen year old pupils who had taken cannabis by the age of 13 were the most likely to have taken Class A drugs in the last year (31% compared with 5% of those who had not taken cannabis by this age). There was a weaker link between taking volatile substances and future use of Class A drugs - those who had taken volatile substances by age 13 were more likely than those who had not to have taken Class A drugs in the last year (16% compared with 7% respectively).
  • These results suggest that taking cannabis is more likely to lead to future use of Class A drugs than not taking cannabis. However, this does not imply that pupils necessarily progress from taking cannabis to taking Class A drugs; 69% of those who had taken cannabis by age 13 not had taken Class A drugs in the last year.

Awareness and knowledge of drugs (Chapter 4)

  • There was widespread awareness of illegal drugs among young people in England. In 2001, 94% of pupils had heard of cocaine, 93% of cannabis and 91% of heroin. At least eight out of ten pupils had heard of crack (84%) and ecstasy (81%), and at least seven out of ten pupils had heard of tranquillisers (74%) and magic mushrooms (74%). Even the less well known drugs recorded awareness levels over 50% - LSD (64%), amphetamines (57%), anabolic steroids (55%), methadone (55%) and poppers (52%). Only 2% had never heard of any of the drugs listed.
  • Awareness of every type of drug increased with age. Yet even at age 11 there was high awareness of cocaine (84%), heroin (81%) and cannabis (75%), though limited awareness of amphetamines (19%), poppers (24%) and LSD (27%). By age 15 virtually all pupils had heard of cocaine, heroin, cannabis, crack and ecstasy. Even the least well known drug, methadone, was recognised by 69%.
  • Pupils' knowledge of the potential physical effects of drugs was assessed through a series of 7 statements, four true and three false. Summing the number of statements which pupils answered correctly illustrates the extent to which knowledge of drugs increased with age. At age 11, 15% of pupils gave five or more correct answers out of a possible seven. This proportion then climbs steadily to reach 54% among 15 year olds, a level which implies a good deal of basic knowledge among older pupils but also a substantial degree of remaining ignorance.
  • Pupils' knowledge of drugs was related to their use of cannabis, but not to their use of Class A drugs. Among 15 year old pupils, use of cannabis in the last month was higher among pupils who got 5 or more answers correct (23%) than among those who got a maximum of 2 answers correct (17%).
  • The proportion of pupils who remembered having lessons on drugs in general increased from 38% in 1988 to 64% in 1996, and has remained around this level since then, and was 65% in 2001. In addition to being asked about lessons on drugs in general, since 1996 pupils have been asked whether they remembered having lessons covering specific drugs. In 2001, lessons about solvents, crack/cocaine, heroin and ecstasy were remembered by more than a third of pupils.
  • There was a relationship between having lessons about drug use and taking cannabis - prevalence of taking cannabis in the last month was lower among Year 11 pupils who had had useful lessons on drugs (12%) than among their counterparts who had had lessons that were not useful (31%) or who did not remember having lessons (27%) - prevalence was also lower among those who remembered having lessons than those who did not (19% compared with 27%). There was no clear relationship between having lessons on drug use and taking Class A drugs.
  • Pupils were presented with five statements about what adults say about drugs and asked to say whether they agreed or disagreed with each. These included a general statement that what adults say about drugs is true and four statements on listening to what certain adults (parents, doctors, teachers, and the police) say about drugs. The vast majority of pupils listened to what some adults say (93% agreed with at least one statement on listening).
  • When asked about whether they believed what adults told them about drugs; just over half of pupils (58%) thought that what they were told was true. As pupils got older (and their own knowledge of drugs increased), they were less likely to value the views of adults: whereas 64% of 11 year olds agreed that what adults say about drugs is true, 51% of 15 year olds shared this view.

Availability of drugs (Chapter 5)

  • Two fifths (42%) of pupils had ever been offered any drugs, with boys more likely (44%) than girls (39%) to have been offered drugs. Likelihood of having been offered drugs increased substantially with age from 17% of 11 year olds to 65% of 15 year olds. Pupils were asked whether they thought it would be easy or difficult to get illegal drugs. A third (33%) felt it would be easy to get illegal drugs and two fifths felt it would be difficult (22%), although it should be noted that almost half (45%) of pupils were not sure how easy or difficult it would be. When asked about the ease of getting specific drugs fewer pupils felt it would be easy to get hold of these drugs (15% crack/cocaine and 11% heroin).
  • Given that drug use (and the likelihood of being offered drugs) increased with age, it is not surprising that a greater proportion of the older age groups perceived it was easy to get illegal drugs: 64% of 15 year olds compared with only 7% of 11 year olds.

Reasons for taking or refusing drugs (Chapter 6)

  • Pupils who had ever tried drugs were asked why they had done so on the first time that they had experimented. Pupils who had taken drugs in the last month were asked a similar question about the last occasion that they had taken drugs. It is therefore possible to compare reasons for first and most recent use, although it should be borne in mind that the smaller group of pupils who had used drugs in the last month were older.
  • The predominant reason why pupils tried drugs for the first time was 'I wanted to see what it was like' given by 68%. In contrast, by far the most common reason for using drugs in the last month was to get high or feel good (59%). Pupils were slightly more likely to have been influenced by friends on the first occasion (21%) than in the last month (15%), whereas they were more likely to have taken drugs on the last occasion than on the first because they had nothing better to do (19% compared with 11%) or because they wanted to forget their problems (16% compared with 11%).
  • Taking drugs is much more likely to have resulted in a positive rather than a negative experience among pupils. Recalling their first occasion of taking drugs, 53% of pupils had a positive experience, compared with 14% who had a negative experience. On the last occasion that pupils had taken drugs (within the last month) the contrast between positive and negative experiences was even more pronounced, with equivalent figures of 70% and 5% for positive and negative reactions.
  • Pupils who had last taken drugs in the last month were the most likely to consider their overall experience of drugs on the first occasion to have been positive (62%) compared with 46% of those who had taken drugs in the last year (but not in the last month) and 37% of those who had last taken drugs more than a year ago.
  • It may be, of course, that those who experienced negative feelings at any time in the past were much less likely to have taken drugs in the month preceding the survey and thus not fall within the smaller group of recent users. Nevertheless, the evidence from this group both on their positive feelings from drug taking and that by far their most common reason for drug use was to get high or feel good suggest strongly that the physical effects of drug use perceived by pupils are more likely to encourage than discourage continued use.
  • All pupils were presented with a list of 13 'things that worry some people when they think about taking drugs' and asked whether they worried about any of them. Despite pupils' mainly positive reactions to taking drugs, there was still considerable concern about the consequences of drug use. This concern spanned social factors - including 'I might get into trouble with my parents' (85%) or the police (79%) - and worries about physical harm - including 'I might get health problems because of using drugs' (80%) and 'something could go wrong and I might die' (78%). The implication is that the vast majority of pupils are worried about both physical and social aspects of drug taking, as well as additional factors. The potential to get into 'dangerous situations' (78%), 'to spend too much money' (59%) or to 'fall behind with my school work' (58%) were each mentioned by the majority of pupils.
  • Pupils who had taken drugs in the last month were asked about their potential future drug taking. A quarter (24%) said they would like to 'give up now', with a further fifth (20%) preferring the option of giving up in the future. A third (32%) were unsure, while somewhat fewer (23%) did not wish to stop taking drugs.

Attitudes to drug use (Chapter 7)

  • The great majority of pupils perceived that their families had negative attitudes towards taking drugs; 85% of pupils said that their parents would either stop them taking drugs or would try to persuade them not to take drugs. There was a modest relationship between perceived family attitudes and when pupils had last taken drugs. Pupils who had never taken drugs felt that if they did, their parents would stop them (72%) rather than try to persuade them to give up (13%). There was a similar pattern among pupils who had taken drugs in the last month although the pattern was less pronounced (59% compared with 21%).
  • A similar set of questions was asked about family attitudes to cigarette smoking in the 2000 survey. Family attitudes to cigarette smoking were also overwhelmingly negative with 88% of pupils reporting that their parents would either stop them smoking or persuade them not to smoke. However, in terms of the 'firmer' attitude to these behaviours, pupils were less likely to think that their parents would stop them smoking cigarettes (59%) than to stop them taking drugs (70%), and correspondingly more likely to think that their parents would persuade them not to smoke (29%) than would persuade them not to take drugs (15%).
  • Drug taking was more prevalent among pupils' friends than among their siblings - 10% reported that half or more of their friends took drugs and a further 18% had a few friends who took drugs, whereas 7% had at least one sibling who took drugs. Drug taking among siblings was at a similar level to 1999, although drug taking among friends was higher (in 1999, 8% reported half or more friends took drugs, 16% reported a few friends took drugs), which suggests that drug use may have increased slightly between 1999 and 2001.
  • Older pupils were more likely than younger pupils to have siblings or friends who took drugs. Hence, in order to look at the relative relationships between having friends or siblings who take drugs and pupils' own drug taking behaviour, analysis was restricted to those pupils aged 15. Among this group, it was found that the behaviour of their siblings was related to their own drug taking. Among those with no brothers or sisters, 28% had taken drugs in the last month. Compared with these lone children, 15 year olds with siblings that took drugs were much more likely to have taken drugs in the last month themselves (53%), and those whose siblings did not take drugs were less likely (18%).
  • The relationship between pupils' drug taking and that of their friends was even stronger. Among 15 year olds, 4% of those with no friends who took drugs had taken drugs in the last month, compared with 19% of those with a few friends who took drugs and 60% of those with half or more of their friends who took drugs.
  • Although the majority of pupils do not think that it is acceptable to take drugs, there has been an increase between 1999 and 2001 in the proportion that think drug taking is acceptable, whereas attitudes towards smoking and drinking have remained the same. Pupils thought that experimental use was more acceptable than occasional or regular use, and also distinguished between the acceptability of taking cannabis and taking heroin or ecstasy. Taking drugs (even cannabis) was still seen as much less acceptable than cigarette smoking.
  • In 2001, 20% of pupils thought it was OK to try cannabis once and 13% that it was OK to smoke cannabis occasionally, increases from 13% and 9% respectively in 1999. It was still seen as less acceptable to try heroin once (6%) than to try cannabis, although this also represented an increase from 1999 levels (3%).
  • Attitudes towards drug users were more tolerant in 2001 than in 1999, with less agreement with statements such as "All people who take drugs should be punished" and "People who take drugs are stupid".

Social and educational factors (Chapter 8)

  • Pupils' social characteristics were related to smoking, drinking and drug use although the strength and direction of the relationships varied for different behaviours. Of the three behaviours, smoking has been shown (from this survey and others) to have the strongest relationship with social and educational characteristics. Prevalence of smoking was higher among those receiving free school meals (the main indicator of disadvantage collected in this survey). Drug use had a weaker (but still significant) relationship, with slightly higher prevalence among those taking free school meals.
  • In contrast, drinking showed no relationship with receipt of free school meals. Pupils who had played truant or had been excluded from school were more likely than those who had not to smoke, drink or take drugs, even once age differences had been taken into account.

Smoking (Chapter 9)

  • The Government's target is to reduce the number of children aged 11-15 who smoke regularly from a baseline of 13% in 1996 to 11% by 2005 and 9% by 2010. In 2001 10% of pupils aged 11-15 were regular smokers. The proportion of regular smokers (defined as usually smoking at least one cigarette a week) has fluctuated since 1982, but has been quite stable since 1998.
  • Prevalence of smoking was strongly related to age. Only 1% of 11 year olds were regular smokers compared with 22% of 15 year olds.
  • In the early 1980s, boys and girls were equally likely to smoke. Since then girls have been consistently more likely to smoke than boys. In 2001, 11% of girls were regular smokers, compared with 8% of boys. This gender difference was not present among 11 and 12 year olds, but first appeared at age 13, and was maintained at 14 and 15.

Drinking (Chapter 10)

  • Twenty six per cent of pupils had had an alcoholic drink in the previous week. This proportion has fluctuated between 20% and 27% since the question was introduced in 1988, but with no sustained increase or decrease over time.
  • In most previous surveys boys had been more likely than girls to have drunk in the last week, and this was also the case in 2001 with 28% of boys and 25% of girls having had a drink in the last week.
  • As with cigarette smoking, drinking was strongly related to age. Only 6% of 11 year olds had drunk alcohol in the last week compared with 52% of 15 year olds.
  • Although the proportion of pupils who drank in the previous week has fluctuated rather than increased over time, the mean consumption for those who had drunk in the last week had risen constantly from 5.4 units of alcohol in 1990 to a peak of 10.4 units in 2000, but was 9.8 units in 2001. It would be premature to conclude from this year's data that average consumption is on a downward trend, following a decade of unbroken increases. The median number of units drunk was six in both 2000 and 2001, and there was no change in the proportion of drinkers who consumed seven or more units in the previous week. The data suggest a halt to the upward trend rather than declining average consumption.
  • Historically, boys who drank consumed more units of alcohol in the last week than girls, although between 2000 and 2001 the difference in the amount of alcohol drunk decreased. In 2001 boys who drank consumed an average of 10.6 units compared with 8.9 units for girls. In 2000 the equivalent figures were 11.7 units for boys and 9.1 units for girls.
  • The types of alcohol drunk have also changed over time - In 2001, beer, lager and cider were still the most common drink (drunk by 70% of drinkers in the last week), but prevalence of alcopops had increased in recent years to reach 68% of drinkers in 2001. The proportion of drinkers who had drunk spirits in the last week had increased from 35% in 1990 to 57% in 2001, whereas prevalence of drinking shandy, wine or fortified wine in the last week have decreased in recent years.

Relationships between smoking, drinking and drug use (Chapter 11)

  • Smoking, drinking and drug use were all highly interrelated behaviours. Pupils who smoked were more likely to drink, and pupils who drank were more likely to smoke. Similarly pupils who either drank or smoked were more likely to take drugs. There was a stronger relationship between smoking and drug taking than there was between smoking and drinking or between drinking and drug use. All three behaviours were strongly linked to age. Nevertheless, these relationships were evident even once the age of pupils who smoked, drank or used drugs was taken into account.

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