Drugs and Children

With cabinet members seemingly falling over themselves to own up to smoking cannabis during their University days, it seems an appropriate time to investigate some of the research that is available with regards to drug use among children and young people.

A good introduction is provided by Pathways to Problems, a 2006 publication which contains a useful overview of the complex issues surrounding this subject. A 2007 Home Office report - Identifying and Exploring Young People’s Experiences of Risk, Protective Factors and Resilience to Drug Use - also covers similar topic areas.

Developing the Evidence Base looks at the services which are available for young people who have misused illegal substances. Hidden Harm is a recently published follow-up report to a 2003 project which took a different angle by examining the effects of parental drug use on their offspring. Or for the number crunchers among you, why not take a look at Statistics on Drug Misuse: England, 2007? A large section of this NHS report is devoted to children from ages 11-15.