A lot of the work we do at the DSM Foundation is around social norms: the context young people find themselves in when it comes to drugs. The reason this is front and centre for us is because reality is often quite far from what people think, and that’s true for the adults in young people’s lives as well as young people themselves.
This means that as a charity that centres around drugs education that is evidence-based and up to date (as well as relevant and accessible), we are constantly on the lookout for the latest stats and facts, being rigorous about sources and data sets (unlike ads that make claims along the lines of “96% of users said their hair felt better after using this shampoo” and in tiny print at the bottom of the screen it states a sample size of 20 people). After all, how can anyone make an informed decision if they don’t know the facts? That’ll mean their choice is likely to be based on myths and misguided beliefs – the opposite of what it should be, particularly where there is risk involved.
Hence, for us, NHS Digital’s publication of its ‘Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England’ survey is always a significant event. We cite figures from it in almost all of our provision, and with good reason: it is a big piece of work done every couple of years that involves a significant number of 11-15 year olds, completed anonymously in schools. This last means that respondents are less likely to understate or exaggerate and as such gives us a good baseline for what is going on.
The latest data – gathered from September 2023 to March 2024 – dropped on October 17th 2024, and involved over 13,000 pupils in years 7 to 11 at a random sample of 185 schools across England. There were some changes to previous iterations, including young people able to identify as a gender other than boy or girl (more on this in a moment), and removal of the question about sources of useful information about alcohol and drugs. The latter was vexing for us as parents/caregivers and school staff have consistently come out top, and this is a reassuring datapoint for our workshops to these audiences, making them realise that they have more of an influence on teens than friends and phones; social norms matter in all kinds of ways!
The data this time was really interesting, and encouraging in lots of ways. Just 12 per cent of boys and girls said they’d ever taken drugs (in 2021, the last time the survey was done, this was 18 per cent), though the figure was 30 per cent for pupils of another gender identity. This unsurprisingly increased with age, from 6 per cent of 11 year olds (2021; 7 per cent) to 23 per cent of 15 year olds (2021; 32 per cent). When it came to being offered drugs, 28 per cent said they had been (2021; 31 per cent), though this was 46 per cent for pupils of another gender identity. Again, this increased with age, from 15 per cent of 11 year olds to 44 per cent of 15 year olds.
A note on pupils of another gender identity: the number who identified as this was low, so didn’t significantly impact the overall results. However, what this makes clear is that these young people are more vulnerable than their peers. This isn’t new, but a stark illustration of how different – and potentially dangerous – contexts can be, and therefore how important it is to make sure drugs education provision is truly universal, inclusive and accessible.
Some data points were consistent – first drug use was most likely to involve cannabis or a volatile substance, and friends are the most common way of obtaining drugs and involved in situations involving drug taking – but there were some areas of concern, such as seemingly higher use of ketamine and magic mushrooms, and huge jumps in “someone else” (a friend of a friend perhaps?) being the source of drugs on the most recent occasion (21 per cent from 5 per cent in 2021), and who they took drugs with (up to 12 per cent from 1 per cent).
Alcohol stats were also broadly down, with 37 per cent of pupils saying they’d ever had an alcoholic drink (2021; 40 per cent), with the now familiar age-related rise, from 15 per cent of 11 year olds to 62 per cent of 15 year olds. Just 7 per cent said they had had a drink in the last week (2021; 9 per cent), but of those who had, the median amount was more than six units, and over a quarter had drunk 15 or more units. The number who said they’d been drunk in the last four weeks was the same as 2021 at 7 per cent.
Vaping seems to be in the headlines more than it was a couple of years ago, but the data on this was relatively consistent: 25 per cent said they are ever used a vape (2021; 22 per cent) and 9 per cent were classed as current users (unchanged). Newsagents had fallen in popularity in terms of where to obtain vapes – down to 26 per cent from 41 per cent in 2021 – with shops and other people (including friends) the most common sources.
There is a lot of NHS Digital data to wade through and try and make sense of (including how it compares to previous years in order to gauge trends; some if it is made clear in the latest publication but much is not). In the immediacy, we will update facts and stats where they appear in our provision, but also – more profoundly – keep analysing what is there and what it means, to inform our work more broadly.
