Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Use Amongst Secondary School Children in Fife, Scotland

Abstract

A survey of 837 Fife secondary school children in their first year of secondary school education (S1), aged 12–13, and fourth year (S4), aged 15–16, completed a questionnaire anonymously about their knowledge of, attitudes to and use of drugs. Fife is a semi-rural area with a total population of 350 000 and no settlement with a population greater than 50 000. Multistage sampling was employed to allow means, standard errors and 95% confidence intervals to be calculated. Data were collected on drugs used, their prevalence, method of administration, and levels of knowledge and understanding.

The results showed that a high proportion had had an alcoholic drink: 59% of S1 (95% CI 53–65%) and 94% (95% CI 92–96%) of S4. The prevalence of current smokers was 11% (95% CI 8–13%) and 30% (95% CI 26–34%) respectively.

Awareness of drugs was high in both groups. Use zvas relatively low in S1; some had used cannabis (5%, 95% CI 4–7%), magic mushrooms (5%, 95% CI 3–6%) and solvents (6%, 95% CI 3–8%) once. Others had used cannabis (5%, 95% CI 2–8%) and solvents (5%, 95% CI < 1–9%) more than once. Cannabis was the most frequently used drug in S4, 48% of whom (95% CI 40–56%) had used it more than once.

The ease of obtaining drugs in school was high: 30% of both S1 and S4 said it was easy to get drugs in school. Pupils tended not to approve of the use of illegal drugs. They were, however, more tolerant of experimental use than regular use, and more tolerant of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis than other drugs. School was the major source of information on these substances.

The findings confirm that drug use is not confined to urban areas of Scotland, that drugs are easily obtained by these secondary school pupils, that there is a high level of tolerance of drug use by 15–16-year-olds and they have highlighted the role of the school in providing information on this subject.