School students and drug and alcohol use

I went to a talk this week at my son’s school by Paul Dillon, from Drug and Alcohol research training Australia. I had heard great things about Paul as a speaker, but not the thing that impressed me most – he had great statistics! So time for a blog post on the highlights. There are two key surveys available. The first is the National Drug Strategy Household Survey. This happens every three years, and, as it says, surveys households about their drug use. The second is a regular survey of Australian Secondary students and their drug use. Both are fascinating (if you like that kind of thing) and overall show that drug and alcohol use in young people is declining (whether legal or illegal). Which is good news, and generally a surprise to most school students and parents, particularly given the tragic deaths this hot summer at music festivals in Australia.

When reporting on drug and alcohol use, it is easy to forget where the risks really are. According to the National Drug Strategy household survey, the two legal drugs of tobacco and alcohol are much worse for the population than all other drugs combined.

In 2011, tobacco smoking was the leading risk factor contributing to death and disease in Australia and was responsible for 9% of the total burden of disease and injury. This includes the risks associated with past tobacco use, current use, and exposure to second-hand smoke. It was estimated that 80% of lung cancer burden and 75% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease burden were attributable to tobacco smoking (AIHW 2016).

Alcohol use was responsible for 5.1% of the total burden of disease and injury in Australia in 2011. It was responsible for 28% of the burden due to road traffic injuries (motor vehicle occupants), 24% of the burden due to chronic liver disease, 23% of the burden due to suicide and self-inflicted injuries, and 19% of the burden due to stroke (AIHW 2016).

Illicit drug use contributed to 1.8% of the total burden of disease and injury in Australia in 2011 (AIHW 2016). This included the impact of injecting drug use, and cocaine, opioid, amphetamine and cannabis dependence. Globally, illicit drug use contributed 0.8% of the total burden of disease in 2010 and has increased since 1990—moving from the 18th to the 15th ranking risk factor (IHME 2016).

So what is happening with the legal drugs? For high school students, both smoking and drinking are reducing in prevalence. In both cases, they have fallen by very significant margins since the survey started in the 1980s. Of all high school students, 8% have smoked in the past month (current smokers), with 15% of 16-17 year olds having smoked in the past month. In 2017 82% of school students have never smoked. This survey begins in 1984 (when I was the right age to be in it) and in 1984 around 25% of school students had smoked in the past week (I couldn’t find the proportion who had ever smoked, but if the ratios stand, that would have been around 50% of all school students had ever smoked in 1984).

Of all high school students, 16% are current drinkers (have consumed alcohol in the last week), with just over 30% of 16-17 year olds having consumed alcohol in the last week. You can see from the graphs that there is a small uptick for current drinkers among 12-15 year olds in 2017 compared with 2014. But compared with the position in 1984 when 30% of 12-15 year olds had consumed alcohol in the last week, just over 10% is a much healthier rate.

 

The school survey, from which these graphs are taken, is done at school, by independent surveyors, who come into a randomly selected school  and class and administer the survey. The household use survey (which is a year earlier) is done by selecting the person in the household aged 12 or over who most recently celebrated their birthday.

Both surveys go to considerable effort to reassure participants that their responses are anonymous (which given the illegal activities covered in the survey is important). Importantly, the year on year comparison is likely to be robust, given the surveys have been done the same way over time.

So are young people in households reporting similar patterns of reducing legal drug use? Yes they are.

The daily smoking graph above shows the most dramatic reduction in the 14-19 year old daily smoking. Since 2001, the proportion of 14–19 year olds who had never smoked increased from 75% to 94%, while daily smokers decreased from 14.9% in 2001 to 3.0% in 2016 – that’s a very positive sign for future smoking rates in the whole population.

Drinking too, particularly risky drinking, reduced significantly. The proportion of 14–19 year olds consuming 5 or more drinks in one day at least monthly significantly declined between 2013 and 2016 (from 25% to 18%) and has more than halved since 2001 (39%).

And the illegal drug use reductions are largely going in the right direction too.

So what about illegal drug use in the school population? The most popular illegal drug amongst school students is cannabis. In the school population 17% have ever used cannabis, with 8% having used it in the last month (now almost the same as the 18% of the population who have ever consumed tobacco). Interestingly the other illicit substance that is common in the school population is inhalants – 18% have ever tried inhalants, although only 8% have used them in the last month (the question was Deliberately sniffed (inhaled) from spray cans or sniffed things like glue, paint,petrol or thinners in order to get high or for the way it makes you feel.).

The use of ecstasy has gone up over the past three years (albeit from a low base). Ten percent of 16-17 year olds have ever used it, up from 6% in 2014. Six percent of 12-17 year olds have ever used ecstasy, up from three percent in 2011.

In the full household survey, ecstasy is also the one drug that has gone up (slightly) in recent statistics of 14-19 year olds. Interestingly, though, looking over a longer time period, the use of ecstasy, both from young people and the population as a whole has substantially dropped over the last 15 years.

Overall, the picture of legal and illegal drug use among young people in Australia is a very positive one. Drug use of all types, particularly the drugs that do the most harm (tobacco and alcohol) have reduced significantly over the last 30 years. That’s something that is easy to forget, amongst the scary things the media highlights. Young people should be congratulated on their good sense.

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All of the graphs and infographics in this post are from  the National Drug Strategy Household Survey and the survey of Australian Secondary students and their drug use. Check them both out. They are both excellent reports.