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Young people’s choice of substances changes rapidly in response to fashion and availability (and price). It will be interesting to see whether the current generation of young drug users reduce their usage as they get older to the same extent as previous generations appear to have done.
It is perhaps because of this very broad conclusion which can be characterised as “good parenting leads to emotionally healthy children who tend to make sensible life decisions” that Demos’ ten recommendations are, to my mind, rather woolly and not particularly likely to be implemented by government – and even less so in this age of austerity.
It seems likely that the relative ‘drought’ of ecstasy on European markets in 2008–2009 was caused by successful international cooperation and law enforcement efforts in both Europe and Asia that targeted the suppliers of the main ecstasy precursor, PMK.
The most worrying aspect of SIED use, alongside its increased popularity, is that very few users engage with drug treatment agencies or other health services, with the exception of using needle and syringe exchange programmes.
The 2015 statistics on Alcohol in England report a continuing reduction in our use and abuse of alcohol as a nation. However, it also makes very clear the unprecedented pressure that our over-use is putting on the health service with more and more hospital admissions linked to alcohol use and abuse.
It is clear that this group of drugs will be a priority for the EMCDDA to monitor over the coming years and that drug treatment agencies probably need to develop their understanding of legal highs and make sure they advertise that there is help available for those developing problems with their use.
Wastewater analysis has moved from being an experimental technique to being a new method in the epidemiological toolkit. Its rapid ability to detect new trends can help target public health programmes and policy initiatives at specific groups of people and the different drugs they are using.
The consistency in the survey results suggests that a combination of low cost and targeted marketing are the main influences on vulnerable young people’s drinking patterns.
Globalisation has facilitated rapid connection and transportation between drug production and drug consumer markets. Recent international developments in transport infrastructure, courier services and containerised shipping have offered a range of new opportunities to traffickers to conceal drug consignments while hampering the efforts of law enforcement to intercept them.
