Smoking, drinking and drug use

The Health and Social Care Information Centre has published in Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England in 2012. It surveyed 7,590 pupils in 254 schools in the autumn term of 2012.

The report documents a continuation in the long-term reductions in the rates of school children drinking, smoking and taking illicit drugs and in their tolerance for peers doing so.

The report shows that in 2012:

  • Less than half of pupils (43 percent) had ever drunk alcohol, compared to 61 percent a decade ago in 2002
  • Around two in ten (23 percent) 11 to 15 year olds had ever tried smoking compared to around four in ten (42 percent) ten years ago in 2002
  • Fewer than one in five (17 percent) had ever tried drugs, compared to 27 percent in 2002.

To download the full report and its related data visit www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB11334.

In addition, the Home Office has published drugs misuse findings from the 2012-13 Crime Survey for England and Wales. The data shows:

  • A fall in people taking illegal substances, including Class A drugs and cannabis. Drugs use is now at lowest level since records began. An estimated 8.2 percent of 16 to 59-year-olds used an illicit drug in the last year, compared with 11.1 percent in 1996.
  • Almost four out of five (79 percent) of respondents thought taking cannabis was unsafe and the vast majority said it was unsafe to take heroin, cocaine or ecstasy (99 percent, 97 percent and 97 percent respectively).
  • 350,000 people aged 16 to 24 used nitrous oxide in the last year, making it the second most popular drug among the age group after cannabis

To download the full findings visit www.gov.uk/government/publications/drug-misuse-findings-from-the-2012-to-2013-csew.