Shift in drug habits...

This week sees Radio 1 launch Drug Week – offering an accessible and informative debate about drug use in the UK. The link below refers to a Newsbeat page discussing the shift in young people's drug habits. Whilst the article advises that there has been a drop in the use of hard drugs (i.e. heroin and crack) and that more young people than ever are getting addiction treatment, it also emphasises that party drugs (i.e. cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis) are getting stronger and taking them is increasing risky, especially when mixing multiple drugs together. This implies that whilst one problem is decreasing a bigger one is increasing.

 “Alcohol is cheaper and more available, cannabis is far stronger, cocaine is half the price it used to be and you can get half a dozen ecstasy tablets for £10," according to Howard Parker, Professor Emeritus at Manchester University, who coined the term 'ACCE' last year.

Not to mention the fact that alcohol abuse is at record levels across the population and that the statistics publish recently quite possibly do not include thousands of young people who abuse legal prescription drugs, albeit attained by illegal means.

The facts are that drug use in this county, whether legal or illegal, is a big problem and we need a new approach to support our young people – 'just saying no' is no longer a valid preventative measure. It seems that taking drugs is part of the teenage culture and we need more understanding if we are going to nurture our young people to make more informed decisions about what drugs they use and how they use them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/the_p_word/newsid_8084000/8084968.stm