Age of First Use and Ongoing Patterns of Legal and Illegal Drug Use in a Sample of Young Londoners

Abstract

The significance of ages of first use of cigarettes, alcohol, cannabis, and stimulant drugs were investigated in a sample of young drug users entering an intervention study in London. Age of first cigarette smoking emerges as a robust predictor of age of first cannabis use, and age of first cannabis use in turn is predictive of age of first stimulant use, among those using both drugs. In this sample, ages of first use of cigarettes, alcohol, and cannabis are not predictive of whether stimulant drugs are used. In a series of regression models that take account of the influence of other factors, age of first use is found to have no relationship to levels of ongoing consumption of cigarettes, alcohol, and cannabis.

Keywords:

• age of first use
• gateway
• cigarettes
• cannabis
• alcohol
• stimulant
• smoking
• young people

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jim McCambridge

Jim McCambridge is a Wellcome Trust Health Services Research Fellow at the National Addiction Centre, London. His main area of interest is the application of Motivational Interviewing among young people for prevention purposes, and he is currently working on trials in this area. He is also interested in the epidemiology of drug use among young people more broadly, and in the development of public health approaches in this area.

John Strang

John Strang is Director of the National Addiction Centre, London. His interests span epidemiology, health services research and clinical interventions studies in Addiction. He is currently working on further studies of drug use among young people, a range of treatment and prevention trials, and on the development of British services to meet the needs of those who have not optimally benefited from methadone-based services.