The study of ESPAD (European School Survey on Alcohol and other drugs) is conducted every four years in 35 European countries with 16-year-olds. 2800 students from 202 schools have taken it. The aim of the study is the use of the three most widely used psychoactive substances (alcohol, tobacco and cannabis) to investigate.
Alcohol is an increase in regular use (13% of students drink, being two times as many boys as girls). The number of cases of drunkenness remained steady. Smoking on a daily basis is decreased (17% in 2007 compared to 31% in 1999). The decrease is lowest for the girls (16% in 2007 compared to 24% in 1999).
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And what about cannabis?
Experimenting with cannabis has declined slightly. In 1999, at 35% of the 16-year-old students (three in ten) in 2007 to 31%. But the biggest decrease was detected in the regular use from 5.5% of young people in 1999 to 6.1% in 2003 and 3.4% today. Boys using cannabis more frequently than girls, and the distance between the two groups is still growing.