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How serious is the drug problem?In a country like Britain the statistics can be alarming, but the numbers don't necessarily give a clear picture of how people are using drugs and the effect it is having on them. One recent survey of 9,000 secondary school students revealed that: 1. one in three 16 year olds have tried cannabis; The results also challenge the stereotype that the teenage drug user typically comes from a poor and deprived neighbourhood. The truth is the opposite. Drug use amongst middle-class children is higher than that amongst their working-class counterparts. In the report it was also noted that these figures were slightly lower than the figures from a similar survey conducted in 1995, indicating that if there is a problem it is not getting worse. All these statistics need to be treated with caution. When reading the figures for cannabis, for instance, it would be wrong to jump to the conclusion that 33% of 16 year olds are regularly smoking pot. Many may have tried it and quickly come to the conclusion that it's not for them. Many - especially those who don't smoke cigarettes - will have tried to inhale, will have coughed a lot, got a sore throat and decided to make the first "joint" their last. It is also important to distinguish between recreational drug use and drug abuse or drug addiction. Just as many adults can drink occasionally without becoming alcoholics, many people - teenagers included - can smoke cannabis from time to time without developing an addiction that would be detrimental to their education or their career. So do British teenagers have a drug problem? Statistics like this are often used to argue that drug use is widespread, and the assumption is made that drug use is also drug abuse and that if these teenagers are not addicted now they soon will be, and that they are on a slippery slope from occasional cannabis use to a fatal heroin addiction. An entire generation is destroying itself and if we are not careful society will fall apart. This is what sociologists call a "moral panic". These people also tend to believe that what is needed is stricter legislation, greater police vigilance and harsher punishments from the courts. One problem with this approach is that the UK already has the toughest drug laws in Europe but it has some of the highest levels of drug use. Advocates of a more liberal approach often point to the case of Holland, where the use of cannabis is accepted as legal and yet the percentage of cannabis users is lower there than in the UK. Holland made a big step towards the decriminalisation of soft drugs in 1980 when it allowed certain coffee shops to sell cannabis. There are, though, some strict conditions : no more than five grams are sold to an individual; They are meant to be places where users can take soft drugs safely, thus breaking the link between recreational drug use and the criminal underworld. For some people it is absurd for a society to permit the free use of tobacco (which is believed to be responsible for some 120,000 deaths each year in the UK) and yet regard the use of cannabis as a criminal offence even though cannabis is less addictive than tobacco and is no more harmful for our health. Undoubtedly drugs do become a serious problem in the lives of a number of young people, having a detrimental impact on their personal, educational and professional lives. These people may well need help, but does it help them to arrest them, take them to court and label them criminals? Excessive use of computer games by teenage boys is also detrimental for their education, for their social development and perhaps for the future of democracy, and the phenomenon is much more widespread than that of cannabis. Perhaps something ought to be done. But would it be a good idea to call in the police and the courts and make these boys criminals? CLICK HERE for a little vocabulary revision. NEXT ARTICLE - "The police response" BACK to "How serious is the problem?" PREVIOUS ARTICLE - "Teenage drinking and drug-taking" BACK to "Stuff to read #1" | |