Young people make choices about whether to use illicit drugs and are not led blindly into drug abuse or from one drug to another, according to a new study.
Instead, they assess the benefits and dangers, says the report, Choosers or Losers?, published today by the Children's Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin.
For those who abuse drugs, "judgments about relative `safety' versus `risk' associated with using various substances strongly influenced their drug choices", the report by Ms Paula Mayock says.
To conduct the study, Ms Mayock spent more than a year in a Dublin inner-city area which has had high levels of drug problems for nearly two decades.
Among those who used illicit drugs, initiation took place on average at 12.4 years of age for young people classified as "problem drug-takers". These are people whose drug use gives rise to personal, social or health problems.
The age of initiation was slightly higher (13.2 years) for young people classified as "drugtakers", meaning those who take drugs on a recreational basis.
"Cannabis, followed by inhalants, dominated as the first drugs used," the report says. "The majority of young people were introduced to illicit drug use by a close friend or a like-aged acquaintance."
However, they saw their first use of drugs as a choice made by them, and "the majority of young people rejected the suggestion that they were pressurised into drug use. "Young people forwarded a range of motives for drug-taking. The most commonly stated incentives for use included drug availability, curiosity, pleasure and fun, peer-group membership and interaction, and the alleviation of boredom and negative self-thought."
For the majority, cannabis use was an accepted reality and was not considered to be a "deviant" activity. Heroin was consistently regarded as the most dangerous of all substances.
For young people who reported heroin use at problematic levels, the time lapse between their first use of heroin and dependence on it ranged from six months to a year. When dependence on heroin came, it frequently took them by surprise.
The report recommends that:
"At-risk" young people need to be targeted at the earliest possible age.
Young people need information on how to reduce risks, avoid problems and prevent abuse. This would include a "harm reduction" approach advising young people on how to reduce the risk to their health if they are taking drugs.
Attracting young heroin-users into treatment services at the earliest possible juncture should be seen as an issue of critical importance.
Children's Research Centre, TCD: ccentre@tcd.ie