The price of cigarettes and alcohol should be increased significantly to reduce consumption at younger ages, and consideration should be given to increasing the minimum legal age for sale of alcohol to 21 years, health experts recommended yesterday.
The proposals from the Southern Health Board came after a new survey by the board in Cork and Kerry showed that almost half of those under the legal age of 18 are drinking alcohol.
The survey on smoking, alcohol and drug abuse also found that almost one in five people had taken illegal drugs at some stage in their life while 7 per cent had taken drugs in the past year and 4 per cent in the last month.
The survey, carried out by the board's public health medicine specialist, Dr Tim Jackson, said the main drugs used were cannabis, hallucinogens and stimulants, but heroin was scarcely detected and there was almost no injecting drug use.
Although opiate use was minimal, this could change rapidly in the current climate of widespread drug tolerance, Dr Jackson warned, adding that one-fifth of respondents believe cannabis should be at least partly legalised.
The survey showed that drug use was highest among those aged 20-24.
"The drug user in this survey tends to be young, male, from urban areas, is also a smoker or drinker and has smoked or drunk from an earlier age than non-drug-users," said Dr Jackson in the report.
"Part-time employment, high frequency of pub and disco attendance and low frequency of attendance at church are associated with increased drug use. Recent and current drug use are highest at younger ages and fall to almost nil over age 35 years."
The survey also found that drug use occurred in all areas and was not significantly higher in deprived areas, although men in Cork city under the age of 35 showed almost 40 per cent lifetime use and 20 per cent use in the past year.
"Drug use showed a strong association with current smoking and alcohol use. Smokers and drinkers showed drug use of up to three times that of those who did not smoke or drink," Dr Jackson observed.
The survey also examined attitudes towards drug use and found that cannabis was seen as the least harmful and most used drug. The survey also found that alcohol was the dominant drug of misuse in terms of prevalence and problem use, with almost 8 per cent of men reporting problem/ dependent drinking, with the figure rising to 13 per cent among the 20-24 age group.
"Such high levels at that young age group have serious implications," Dr Jackson said, adding that the survey also found 50 per cent of boys and 20 per cent of girls below the legal age were current drinkers.
The survey also found that a quarter of men drank in excess of the recognised guideline of 21 units per a week, while some 78 per cent of people - 82 per cent of men and 75 per cent of women - drank alcohol. The highest level of drinking was among 20- to 24-year-olds.
Almost two-thirds of people had smoked at some stage in their lives, while 38 per cent were currently smoking. Numbers of smokers in women were almost equal to men, while boys began smoking more than a year earlier than girls and smoked more cigarettes a day.
The Southern Health Board is earmarking an additional £400,000 to combat substance abuse, with a special emphasis on improving child self-reliance and delaying the age of experimentation, particularly with alcohol and tobacco.
