The Health Behaviour of School Children in Northern Ireland survey, 1997/1998

In this survey, 6,589 young people from Primary 7 to Year 12 were asked, among other health-related issues, about their experience of illicit drugs.¹

Main findings

The main findings showed that:

23% of the sample reported being offered illicit drugs (excluding solvents);
5.1% of those who had been offered drugs were offered them at the age of 10 or under;
the average age of the first drug offer was 13;
12.3% of the sample reported using illicit drugs at least once;
7.1% of the sample currently use drugs;
2.9% of the sample could be described as current regular drug users (taking illicit drugs at least a few times a month);
for young people in Years 8-12, 6.4% have tried illicit drugs only, 8.8% have used solvents only and 7.2% have used both solvents and illicit drugs.

Seven hundred and eighty seven young people reported that they had tried drugs (excluding solvents) at least once, which represents 12.3% of the total sample (13.7% of boys and 10.7% of girls). Of those who had tried drugs, 58.7% had tried them more than once and 24.3% could be described as current regular drug users (ie using drugs a few times a month or more).

Four hundred and sixty seven young people (7.1% of the survey group) admitted to currently using drugs (excluding solvents). Of those who said that they had tried drugs, 20.9% said that they never use drugs now.

Proportion of boys and girls who have ever tried drugs

	Boys (% of sample)	Girls (% of sample)	All (% of sample)
Primary 7	3.2	1.3	2.2
Year 8	2.9	3.0	2.9
Year 9	9.0	5.6	7.5
Year 10	16.6	8.3	12.7
Year 11	26.0	15.2	21.0
Year 12	25.3	31.5	28.3
Total	13.7	10.7	12.3

Overall, 2.9% of the survey group could be designated as regular drug users. This is defined as young people who use drugs at least a few times a month or more frequently. Boys form the majority of regular users (59.7%) and most are in Years 10 to 12 (90%).

Current drug use among those who have tried drugs

		Boys	Girls	All
Primary 7 - Year 9	use now regularly	27.6	8.3	20.2
	use now not regularly	39.7	36.1	38.3
	tried drugs but never use now	32.8	55.6	41.5
Years 10-12	use now regularly	35.5	27.3	32.0
	use now not regularly	46.8	41.9	44.7
	tried drugs but never use now	17.7	30.8	23.3

One third (33%) of the total sample stated that it would be easy for them to get illegal drugs if they wanted to.

Comparisons

Comparisons with previous Health Behaviour of School Children surveys are problematic due to differences in research methodology. However, in 1994, 5.9% of first, third and fifth year pupils had used illicit drugs only, 2.6% had used solvents only and 4.8% had used both solvents and illicit drugs. The figures from the 1997/98 survey for Year 8-12 pupils show that 6.4% have tried illicit drugs only, 8.8% have used solvents only and 7.2% have used both solvents and illicit drugs. Thus, it would seem that there has been no significant rise in the use of illicit drugs between 1994 and 1998, but there has been an increase in the reported use of solvents. However, the use of solvents is typically cyclical and there are also inherent methodological problems in accurately surveying the prevalence of solvent misuse.

Reference

Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland. The Health Behaviour of School Children in Northern Ireland: A report on the 1997/1998 survey. Belfast: HPANI, 2000.

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