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Drug use, smoking and drinking among young people in England in 2001

5 Availability of drugs

Sarah Blenkinsop

5.1 Introduction

As explained in the introductory chapter (Section 1.4), a substantial proportion of pupils who had tried sniffing volatile substances but taken no other drugs answered that they had never taken drugs at a filter question asking about use of any drugs. As a result, they did not answer questions about first and most recent drug taking. Given the potential for this to impact on results, all those whose first or more recent drug taking was of volatile substances alone (that is, not in combination with other drugs) are excluded from most analyses in sections 5.4 and 5.5. Where appropriate data from 1999 has been reanalysed on this basis so that comparisons can be made.

An exception to these exclusions is made for analyses by the type of drug taken on the first occasion that pupils took drugs. Tables include a column for those who had only sniffed volatile substances. Though these results should be treated with caution (since the sample of pupils who had only used volatile substances may be biased), these columns have been included because they suggest large differences between users of volatile substances and other drugs.

5.2 The types of drugs pupils have been offered

Pupils were asked whether they had ever been offered different types of drugs. Two fifths (42%) of pupils surveyed in 2001 had been offered 'any drugs' (this includes illegal or legal drugs, but excludes cigarettes and alcohol).¹ Cannabis (27%) had been offered to more pupils than any other drug, and glue, gas or other solvents had been offered to a fifth (20%) of pupils. Nine percent of pupils aged 11-15 had been offered cocaine and 7% had been offered heroin. Just over a fifth (22%) had been offered drugs in the 'stimulants' category and 12% had been offered any 'psychedelic' drug.²

Boys were more likely than girls to have ever been offered 'any drugs' (44% and 39% respectively). This difference was mostly due to differences in the proportions of boys and girls that had ever been offered cannabis (30% of boys compared with 25% of girls), although boys were also more likely to have been offered magic mushrooms (11%) than girls (8%).

Pupils were asked about whether they had ever been offered drugs, so it would be expected that older pupils would be more likely to have ever been offered drugs than younger pupils simply because they are older. The proportion of pupils who had ever been offered drugs increased substantially with age - 65% of 15 year olds had ever been offered drugs compared with 17% of 11 year olds. At the youngest ages (11 and 12), pupils were most likely to have been offered legal drugs such as gas, glue or other solvents, whereas from 13 to 15 years the illegal drug cannabis was most likely to have been offered. By the age of 15, 17% of pupils had been offered cocaine and 12% had been offered heroin.

(Tables 5.1-5.4)

5.3 The ease of accessing illegal drugs

Pupils were asked whether it was 'very easy', 'fairly easy', 'fairly difficult', 'very difficult' or whether they 'don't know' how easy or difficult it would be to get illegal drugs if they wanted to. For analysis purposes, the responses were grouped into 'easy', 'difficult' and 'don't know' (as shown on Tables 5.5-5.7).³

As many as 45% said they did not know how easy or difficult it would be to get illegal drugs. A third (33%) reported that it would be easy to get illegal drugs, whereas 22% thought it would be difficult. Pupils were also asked how easy or difficult it was to get cocaine/crack and heroin, given that these drugs are among those which cause the greatest harm. A majority of pupils said they did not know how easy or difficult it was to access cocaine/crack (59%) or heroin (61%). More than a quarter of pupils (27%) reported that it would be difficult to get cocaine/ crack, and 15% said it would be easy. Similar responses were found with regard to the accessibility of heroin.

Boys were slightly more likely than girls to say it would be easy to get illegal drugs (35% compared with 30%), which is not surprising as boys were more likely to have been offered drugs (as discussed in Section 5.2 above). However, there was little difference in the responses from boys and girls when asked specifically about how easy or difficult it would be to obtain cocaine/crack and heroin.

(Table 5.5)

Given that drug use (and the likelihood of being offered drugs) increased with age, it is not surprising that a greater proportion of the older age groups perceived it was easy to get illegal drugs: 64% of 15 year olds compared with only 7% of 11 year olds (as illustrated in Figure 5.1). It should be noted that the age gradient for perception of ease of access to illegal drugs was much steeper than the age gradient for use of drugs. Moreover, a greater proportion of younger pupils than those in the older age groups were unable to say whether they found it easy or difficult to access illegal drugs. Older pupils were also more likely to think that it would be easy to get hold of cocaine/crack and heroin than younger pupils although the age difference was less pronounced than for illegal drugs in general (Among 15 year olds 27% felt it would be easy to obtain cocaine/crack and 21% felt it would be easy to obtain heroin, among 11 year olds the equivalent figures were 4% and 3%). At each age, pupils felt that it would be more difficult to get heroin than it was for them to get cocaine/crack.

(Table 5.6, Figure 5.1)

 

Figure 5.1

Proportion perceiving it would be easy to obtain drugs, by age All pupils

There is the potential for age to confound the analysis of whether pupils had been offered drugs and the ease of getting drugs, as older pupils were more likely to have been offered drugs. However, restricting the analysis to a single age group (such as 15 year olds) minimises the risk of confounding by age. Among 15 year olds, those who had been offered drugs were much more likely than those who had not been offered drugs to think it would be easy to obtain drugs (81% compared with 33% respectively). Those who had been offered either cocaine or crack or had been offered heroin were more likely to think it would be easy to get these drugs than their counterparts who had not been offered them, although these drugs were perceived to be harder to obtain than drugs in general. For example, 55% of 15 year olds offered cocaine/crack felt these drugs would be easy to obtain, compared with 18% of 15 year olds who had not been offered these drugs.

(Tables 5.7-5.9)

5.4 Where drugs were obtained

All the results presented in this section exclude pupils who had only sniffed volatile substances, unless explicitly stated otherwise (see section 5.1).

Of those who had ever used drugs, 77% of boys and 82% of girls had obtained them from 'any friend'⁴ on the first occasion of use.⁵ Boys who had ever used drugs were more likely to have got them from 'a friend of the same age' (41%) than an 'older friend' (33%) on the first occasion, although girls were more likely to have obtained drugs from an 'older friend' (42%) than from 'a friend of the same age' (34%). Ten per cent of pupils who had ever used drugs had obtained them from 'someone they knew of, but not personally', with boys slightly more likely to do this than girls (12% compared with 8%).

Similarly, on the last occasion of drug use (which relates to all pupils who used drugs in the last month , 81% of pupils had obtained drugs from 'any friend', including 42% from 'a friend of the same age', and 34% from an 'older friend'. On the last occasion of drug use, boys were more likely than girls to have obtained drugs from 'a friend the same age' (45% compared with 38%). Girls were much more likely than boys to have received drugs from a 'boyfriend or girlfriend', on both the first and last occasion of drug use (1% of boys and 6% of girls obtained drugs from their 'girlfriend or boyfriend' on the first occasion, and the equivalent figures for the last occasion were less than 1% and 9%). It was least likely for all drug users to have received drugs from their 'mother or father', 'a stranger', or 'a younger friend' (all mentioned by 2% or less for first and last occasion obtained drugs).

(Tables 5.10, 5.11)

Pupils who were 11 years old or younger when they first ever used drugs were less likely than those who were 15 when they first ever used drugs to have accessed their first drugs from 'any friend': 66% compared with 87%. Pupils who were younger when they first used drugs were slightly more likely than those who were older to have received drugs from 'someone they knew of, but not personally', such as a third party recommended by a friend, or from 'someone else' or a family member. On the last occasion of drug use (which refers to all pupils who had used drugs in the last month), similar age differences existed: younger pupils were less likely than older pupils to access drugs from friends, and were more likely to obtain them from 'someone they knew of, but not personally'.

(Tables 5.12, 5.13)

Forty one per cent of pupils who used cannabis on the first occasion of drug use had obtained it from 'a friend of the same age', as had 47% who had used gas, glue or other solvents on the first occasion of drug use. However, Class A drugs were most often acquired from 'an older friend': 38% of those who used Class A drugs on the first occasion of drug use. Moreover, 15% of those who used Class A drugs on the first occasion of drug use had accessed them from 'someone they knew of, but not personally'.

(Table 5.14)

Pupils (those who had used drugs in the last month) were asked where they had obtained drugs on the last occasion they had used drugs: half (48%) said 'out on the street, in a park or other outdoor area', and over a quarter (28%) said 'in someone else's home'. Compared with 1999, a slightly smaller proportion of pupils were 'at a party, club, disco or rave' when they last obtained drugs (9% in 2001 compared with 13% in 1999). Five per cent of pupils reported they had obtained drugs at school (more common among younger pupils). Boys were more likely than girls to have obtained drugs 'out on the street or in a park' (56% compared with 44%), whereas girls were more likely than boys to have been 'in someone else's home' (33% compared with 22%).

At all ages, drugs were most likely to have been obtained 'out on the street, in a park or in other outdoor area' when they were last used. A greater proportion of older pupils than younger pupils had most recently obtained drugs 'in someone else's home' (29% of 15 year olds who had used drugs in the last month compared with 19% of 11-13 year olds who had done so). Those pupils who had used cannabis on the last occasion they had used drugs were most likely to have obtained it 'out on the street, in a park or other outdoor area' (55%). When Class A drugs had been used on the most recent occasion of drug use, there was less difference in the sources of supply: 'out on the street, park or other outdoor area' (33%), 'in someone else's home' (28%) or 'at a party, club or rave' (25%).

(Tables 5.15-5.17)

5.5 Whether drugs were given free or paid for

All the results presented in this section exclude pupils who had only sniffed volatile substances, unless explicitly stated otherwise (see section 5.1).

Pupils who had used drugs were asked whether they had paid for them or had been given them free. Eighty-three per cent of pupils who had ever used drugs had been given them free on the first occasion of use (the age at which pupils first tried drugs did not affect this greatly). As might be expected, pupils were more likely to have paid for drugs on the last occasion they used them, but even so, 61% said they had been given them without payment. As shown in Figure 5.2, girls were less likely than boys to have paid for drugs, both on the first and last occasion they had used drugs.

(Tables 5.18, 5.19)

 

Figure 5.2

Given drugs (not paid) on first and last occasion, by sex All pupils

On the last occasion of drug use, older pupils were more likely than younger pupils to have paid for drugs (43% of 15 year olds compared with 26% of 11-13 year olds), but there was no difference in whether pupils had paid for drugs or been given them for free on the first occasion by age of first use.

(Tables 5.20, 5.21)

On both the first and last occasions that pupils tried drugs, pupils were more likely to have had to have paid for Class A drugs than for other types of drugs (on the first occasion, 26% paid for Class A drugs, 15% paid for cannabis and 12% paid for volatile substances). Nevertheless, three quarters (74%) said that Class A drugs were free when first used, as did two fifths (42%) with regard to the last occasion of use.

(Tables 5.22, 5.23)

Pupils appeared to have spent more on drugs on the most recent occasion they had paid for them than on the first occasion ­ 17% of pupils had paid £10 or more for drugs on the last occasion that they had taken drugs, compared with only 3% who had paid more than this amount on the first occasion they had tried drugs. Boys were more likely to have paid greater amounts of money for drugs than girls ­ 22% of boys had paid £10 or more for drugs on the last occasion compared with 10% of girls.

(Tables 5.24, 5.25)

Notes and References

1 All reference to a generic 'drugs' category includes both illegal and legal drugs (but excludes cigarettes and alcohol).
2 Types of drugs included in the 'stimulants' category were cocaine, crack, ecstasy, amphetamines and poppers. LSD and magic mushrooms were included in the 'psychedelic' category.
3 The category 'impossible' to get illegal drugs was removed from the 2001 survey, as cognitive testing revealed the category was not an appropriate part of the scale. Therefore, comparisons with 2000 data are not made due to the change in question format.
4 Boyfriends and girlfriends are included in this category.
5 All references to 'the first occasion of drug use' in the text, figures and tables relate to all pupils who had ever used drugs
6 All references to 'the last occasion of drug use' in the text, figures and tables relate to all pupils who had used drugs in the last month

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