More children try cannabis in NI

Published Monday, 21 September 2009

A new Queen's University survey has found that 8% of children under the age of 12 have tried cannabis.

The survey also found that levels of cannabis use among young people in Northern Ireland is higher than in the rest of the UK, Ireland and Europe.

The Youth Development Survey questioned 4000 pupils about drugs in 43 schools in Belfast, Ballymena and Downpatrick.

Figures suggest that 45% of teenagers aged 18 and under have tried cannabis.

This figure rises to 43% by the age of 16, and 45% by the age of 18.

The issue of drug use will be discussed at Queen's University this week.

"Monday's event will bring together educationalists and health professionals to discuss the onset and development of problem drug use among teenagers", Dr Patrick McCrystal, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Child Care Research, said.

"A number of young people who took part in the Youth Development Survey appear to have developed a drug-using lifestyle by the age of 16 years.

"The findings relating to cannabis are particularly interesting as cannabis is often considered the 'gateway' drug to more serious substance abuse.

Dr Patrick McCrystal said the cannabis users who took part in the study were more likely to be male, have weaker family bonds, and be less committed to school than those who did not use the drug.

"They were also more likely to have smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol to intoxication before the age of 16", he added.

"These findings highlight the need to educate young people about the risks of experimenting with drugs."

Later in the week researchers from across Europe will meet at Queen's to discuss the latest developments in drugs-related issues at the 20th Annual Conference of the European Society for Social Drug Research.

Comments

3 Comments

Phil in Belfast wrote (975 days ago):

"The findings relating to cannabis are particularly interesting as cannabis is often considered the 'gateway' drug to more serious substance abuse.'' The gateway theory is nothing to do with using cannabis its the fact that its illegal and sold by people who more often than not dabble in harder drugs. There is no scientific evidence to prove cannabis leads to harder drugs infact its been debunked many times. Would you consider milk a gateway to whiskey ? I no way do I think children should be smoking cannabis and anyone found to be supplying them with cannabis should face the full brunt of the law but I do believe we have bigger problems to worry about like our culture of drink which is a killer and cocaine which is rife in Belfast, herion seems to be making an appearnce now too, when I was a teenager the only time we heard about herion was in the film trainspotting.

Alex in Northern Ireland wrote (976 days ago):

I agree that anyone under the age of 18 should not be smoking cannabis because there body and mind is still growing. It’s like a 13 year old starting to drink alcohol; the effects would not be good. But at the end of the day please show the true facts about cannabis. It’s not a gateway drug. It’s not addictive. Yes there is a link to psychos but alcohol and antidepressants are both related to causing psychosis and there both legal. Cannabis has not yet been linked to causing cancer like cigarettes do. Cannabis also works very well for medical use with such diseases as Alzheimer's disease, HIV/AIDS, Cancer and others.

Paul in derry wrote (976 days ago):

One easy way to get the numbers to plummet is to tax and sell it in licensed shops like in the netherlands, THEY have the lowest drug abuse in the developed world. Prohition DOES NOT work, people want, people get. time for the gov to capitalise on it, People will spend money on it no matter how illegal the Gov make so they might as well do it in the name of harm reduction. You could not even call the cannabis in Northern ireland cannabis it is of such dubious quality.