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THE EDUCATOR - Summer 2007 Teen Dope Users by Farah Farouque, The Age AU CANNABIS users who started smoking as teenagers are more likely to suffer long-term harm, including poor mental health, than drinkers who started using alcohol as adolescents, a major study has found. Heavy users of marijuana are also more likely to graduate to other drugs such as amphetamines and ecstasy than are teenage binge drinkers. Involving nearly 2000 Victorian high school students aged 14 or 15, the landmark study has traced their progress since 1992, and provides the first comparison of the consequences of the two substances commonly used in teenage social situations. Researcher George Patton, who conducted the study for Melbourne University's Centre for Adolescent Heath, said that while both alcohol and cannabis carried health risks, the overwhelming evidence was that cannabis was "the drug for life's future losers". "It's the young people who were using cannabis in their teens who were doing really badly in terms of their mental health," Professor Patton said. "They were also less likely to be working or be qualified or in a relationship and more likely to be using other substances such as ecstasy, amphetamines, cocaine and even tobacco. "Effectively, for a substantial number of high-risk users in our sample, cannabis was the drug that was preferred as teenagers." Broadly, the study confirms alcohol and cannabis are commonly first used in the vulnerable adolescent years. Of the 1943 survey participants, from 45 private and public schools around the state, 80 per cent said they had used alcohol or cannabis by the age of 17. Almost two-thirds had tried cannabis before they turned 18. Strikingly, those defined as heavy users from the age of 15 or 16 had by then selected one substance — alcohol or cannabis — over the other and tended to stick with their drug of choice into their 20s. Professor Patton said the findings reflected the changing use and attitudes to cannabis by teenagers. "Twenty or 30 years ago, cannabis was uncommonly used by teenagers," he said. "Alcohol use is still more prevalent, but cannabis use has become widespread … in many countries." While patterns of use intensified as they grew older, only one in 25 survey participants were classified as taking either alcohol or cannabis at "very high risk levels" in their teens. This was defined as using cannabis every day or in the case of alcohol, exceeding 43 standard drinks per week for boys or 28 for girls — more than the guidelines for very risky drinking by adults.
One-third of pupils have tried cannabis by the age of 15 By Jonathan Owen (The Independent, Published: 15 April 2007) One in three young teenagers have used cannabis, some on a daily basis, according to new research. The study appears to confirm growing fears among teachers that joints have become the 21st-century equivalent of smoking behind the bike sheds. School heads and administrators are so worried about the drug that they will gather this week at the first conference of its kind to address the issue. Researchers found almost all those using cannabis on a daily basis were also smoking and drinking, more than six out of 10 had used ecstasy, nearly a third had tried cocaine, and one in 10 had tried heroin. The findings are based on a long-term study by Queen's University, Belfast, of 4,000 pupils aged 14 and 15 and will be published this week in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Dr Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington College, Berkshire, and organiser of the conference on Friday at Wellington College, said: "I don't think there is a secondary school in Britain that doesn't have a problem with drugs." He is gathering together some of Britain's top teachers, as well as senior police officers and experts from drugs and mental health charities, in an attempt to find a way forward. One of the speakers, Bernard Hogan-Howe, Chief Constable of Merseyside, will be calling for a review of "out-of-date assumptions" about cannabis, warning: "The legacy of people taking this increased-strength drug today could be felt for generations to come." Debra Bell, a parent whose 19-year-old son has just entered treatment after five years of struggling with cannabis abuse, will be calling for a health education campaign in schools. "Thousands of families across the UK are in crisis," she said. All this comes as a ferocious debate continues over the mental health risks associated with skunk - a potent new form of the drug far stronger than traditional cannabis - first reported in this newspaper last month. Additional reporting by Roger Dobson http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2449971.ece
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