Publication, Part of Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England
Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England, 2023
National statistics, Accredited official statistics
Correction to school lessons and guidance (part 12)
Following the initial publication it was discovered that teacher responses from volunteer schools had not been excluded from the analysis (see Appendix A8 for information about volunteer schools). This was corrected and the affected tables and commentary have been re-issued including only teacher responses from sampled schools.
Only Part 12: School lessons and guidance was affected, specifically tables 12.4, 12.5, 12.6, 12.7, 12.8, 12.9 and 12.10, and the associated charts and commentary in the sections 'Frequency of lessons about tobacco, alcohol and drugs' and 'Lesson contributors and sources of information used to prepare lessons'. Though some of the quoted figures changed by 0-5 percentage points, there was no effect to the order of the most common contributors and sources of information to lessons.
13 February 2025 17:00 PM
Part 10: Young people and drugs: the context
Introduction
This part sets the context for drug taking among young people.
It looks at:
- why pupils take drugs.
- attitudes and perceptions about drug use.
Some of the analysis is only based on pupils who said they had taken drugs on more than one occasion. The methodology for identifying these pupils has changed in this survey. Pupils are no longer directly asked on how many occasions they have taken drugs. Pupils are now included in the analysis if they reported taking any individual drugs on more than one occasion.
Why pupils take drugs
In this section:
- ‘why taken on first occasion’ is based on pupils who had ever taken drugs
- ‘why taken on most recent occasion’ is based on pupils who had taken drugs on more than one occasion.
Why pupils took drugs on the first and most recent occasion
Pupils could select more than one reason.
There were differences in the reasons pupils gave for taking drugs on the first occasion and on the most recent occasion.
Pupils who took drugs on the first occasion were most likely to say they took them ‘to see what it was like’ (37%), whilst on the most recent occasion they were most likely to say ’to get high or feel good’ (26%).
Why pupils took drugs on the first occasion by drug taken (most common reasons)
Pupils taking cannabis most commonly gave the reason ‘to see what it was like’ (58%).
For volatile substances and Class A drugs, this reason also had a high percentage but it was not significantly higher than some of the other responses. For volatile substances pupils were as likely to say that they didn't remember why they took them the first time (26%) or answer 'Other reasons' (16%), than to say 'to see what it was like' (22%). For Class A drugs, the percentages ranged from 6% for 'was a dare' to 37% for 'wanted to see what it was like'.
For more data relating to this section:
Tables 10.1 to 10.8, Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people, 2023
Attitudes to taking drugs
Attitudes to people of pupil's own age taking drugs
11% of pupils thought that it was OK for someone their own age to take cannabis to see what it was like in the 2023 survey which was similar to in 2021 (10%). 4% said they thought it was ok to try cocaine in the 2023 survey.
The percentage of pupils that thought it was ok to sniff glue has increased from 9% to 11% between the 2021 and 2023 surveys.
There was lower tolerance of regular drug use (taking once a week); 6% of pupils thought it was OK for cannabis, 4% for sniffing glue, and 2% for cocaine, similar levels to 2021.
Attitudes to people of pupil's age taking drugs, by age
The proportion of pupils who thought it was OK for someone their age to try drugs increased with age, as did the proportion who thought it was OK to take cannabis or cocaine once a week (not shown on chart).
25% of 15 year olds thought it was OK to try cannabis, and 14% thought it was OK to use it once a week.
Perceived family attitudes towards taking drugs, where the family knows that child takes drugs
Where a child takes drugs, and their family are aware that they do so, the most common attitude is that their family try to stop them (45%). The next most common attitudes were that their family does nothing (21%) or that their family try to persuade them not to (19%).
For more data relating to this section:
Tables 10.9 to 10.14, Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people, 2023
Last edited: 13 February 2025 4:59 pm