Nearly one fifth of 11 to 15 year olds in Britain have taken drugs, official statistics revealed on Thursday. The figures point to a worrying trend that young students are not concerned about the long-term health effects.
Ian started with skunk. Then came ketamine, speed, MDMA, acid and mephedrone. He was 14-years-old. Three years on he smokes marijuana every other day, and takes ecstasy, ketamine or speed at weekends. And he thinks it’s “absolutely, 100 per cent normal”.
“My friend’s older brothers were doing it before us, and it just kind of trickled down. They just said, ‘here’s some weed’. Obviously our use got progressively more intense.”
For Ian, and young people like him, drugs are a part of everyday life. Easy to come by and paid for out of a mixture of pocket money, their government-allocated Educational Maintenance Allowance and part-time jobs.
“I have no idea how I pay for it. I haven’t even thought about this. I get about £20 a week pocket money and EMA as well, which everyone knows is just a government weed allowance at the end of the day.
“Mostly my mates sell me drugs now. It used to be horrible street dealers, you’re out and about you just sniff around. It’s right in front of people’s noses. I can pretty much spot a dealer from a mile off now, most of the time they’ll come up to you”, he says.
“I don’t know anyone who hasn’t touched at least a spliff in their life. Apart from like, my five-year old cousin.”
Derek, a 17 year-old A-Level student at one of London’s largest comprehensives, also started taking drugs at 14. “It’s quite normal; I’ve only got one friend who doesn’t blaze [smoke weed]. I smoke every other day, three or four joints, about £10 worth.”
Like many young people who smoke marijuana or take hard drugs regularly, Derek insists it doesn’t have an effect on him. “I sometimes feel tired and like I can’t be arsed to do my homework but I’d be feeling that anyway. It doesn’t make a difference to me.”
Derek wants to study sociology at Nottingham University but is unsure he will get the grades. “My grades aren’t great. My GCSEs aren’t great, I fluctuate a lot, I was smoking weed during my GCSEs. I did fail some but I think it was inevitable because of a lack of revision, lack of work. But I don’t think it had anything to do weed. I never did homework as a child.”
For many young students the effects of regular drug taking aren’t as immediately obvious as a failed GCSE. But regular drug use, even of Class B substances such as cannabis, can lead to a cycle of dependency and mental illness.
For Professor David Nutt, the former government drug advisor who now works in Imperial College London, the problem with young people using drugs recreationally is that their brains are still growing:
"Changing the chemistry of the brain without understanding of the consequences should always be avoided.
“The developing brains of under 18s are also particularly vulnerable to damage from drink and drugs.”
Professor Nutt adds that alcohol abuse amongst teenagers is also a huge issue: “It is important to remember, however, the huge physical cost of alcohol use by young people - alcohol use was cited in a recent study as one of the main risk factors for 10-24 year olds in reduction of life span.”
Amy Winehouse’s public struggle with drug abuse is just one example of how addiction can blight a person’s life. Her father now wants to start the Amy Winehouse Foundation to help other drug and alcohol addicts.
Adam, 23, post-graduate student has been in Narcotics Anonymous for three years. He, like everyone seems to, began taking drugs at 14. By 20, he was smoking weed every day, and received psychiatric treatment for his paranoia.
“I think Amy Winehouse’s dad is right. An addiction is a chemical thing, it’s a disease. Not like breaking your leg but like a chemical imbalance. I wouldn’t say I have been alright. I have been really depressed and paranoid ... but I’ve seen worse. I’ve seen boys who couldn’t leave their house; they had to go to The Priory.
“I’ve seen coke addicts in £5,000 worth of debt begging their mums for cash so they don’t get their legs broken by dealers.”
“There’s lots of different types of cannabis paranoia. There’s the standard paranoia, you think someone’s following you and there’s the more oppressive paranoia. Your thoughts about certain things become warped. Everything is negatively warped. Nothing’s good, everything’s bad. Because of the paranoia I’ve found it difficult to have relationships because I’m always withdrawn. I don’t get pleasure out of anything apart from weed. Everything’s boring or pointless if you’re not stoned.”
Brian, a 16-year-old who has just completed exams, believes his drug use is “totally normal”.
“Hopefully in the future I will do philosophy as a degree and then a law conversion course. Do I think I’ll still take drugs? A lot of people say you grow out of it, but I can’t picture myself not smoking because I enjoy it quite a bit.
“When I [become] a lawyer I [will] see it like some people after work drink, I’d see my vice being having a spliff after work. I see myself probably doing something like that. It wouldn’t affect my work, it doesn’t affect my grades. I probably have missed a day of school because of a comedown from ecstasy but there have never been any serious problems amongst my friendship group. There’s no long-term effects.”
Another problem Brian, Derek and Ian face is getting caught stoned – or otherwise - at school.
As Derek says, it’s the paranoia: “It’s just been the last few months, after my AS levels, I’d go out for lunch and have a spliff with my friends. Then we’ll go back in stoned, usually we’ll just have something like PE. In a proper lesson I can’t really concentrate as well as I could.
“When you are stoned you are a bit more paranoid. When you’re high you’re just worried that every teacher that looks at you thinks ‘red eyes’.
“Once a teacher said that I looked tired and I got really paranoid. I know people have been expelled for dealing in my school, older kids. I have had a few friends who got caught stoned but they had no proof, he just denied it. Unless they find something on you there’s not really much they can do.”
For teenagers, it’s about “personal choice”.
Brian explains: “A lot of my mates do use certain substances, Mostly we take ketamine and ecstasy.”
And in their minds, it’s not an issue: “There’s this whole black and white thing. Drugs will ruin your life. But until you stop thinking like that and you actually research it, I don’t think a lot of them are that bad.
“I don’t have a drug of choice. I’m not addicted and I don’t worry about it. You get different categories of drug users, addicts and poly-drug users. I’m just a teenager, I go out and have a good time, and I don’t see how it is bad for you in moderation.”
* Some names and places have been changed to protect identities.