Irish youth `more exposed' to drugs than Europeans

Irish teenagers are twice as likely to have sampled heroin than most young Europeans, according to a report by the EU drugs agency, and four out of every 10 Irish 16-year-olds have tried cannabis.

The report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction published in Berlin yesterday concludes that heroin remains Europe's biggest problem drug, although 10 times as many Europeans have used cannabis.

Although the scale of the drugs problem in the Republic is unremarkable by European standards, Irish and British schoolchildren are at greater risk of being exposed to drugs. While almost 40 per cent of Irish 16-year-olds have smoked a joint, fewer than 5 per cent of young Portuguese have tried cannabis.

Although fewer than 1 per cent of young Europeans have sampled heroin, more than 2 per cent of Irish 16-year-olds have tried the drug.

"I think childhood ends earlier in Britain and Ireland than in southern Europe, so that young people are exposed to these risks much sooner," said Mr Richard Hartnell, one of the analysts who compiled the report.

The trend in most European countries is away from legal repression and towards treatment and rehabilitation. The report shows that some countries with the most liberal approach to drugs are showing most success. Fewer than 1 per cent of Irish intravenous drug-users are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and Mr Hartnell played down a sharp rise in the number of drug-related deaths in the Republic.

"One reason for the steep rising curve is the fact that Ireland under-reported such deaths in the past. Most of these deaths are from overdoses and, although every death is a cause for concern, I would not be as concerned as the graph might lead you to believe," he said.

Most of the 6,000 to 7,000 drug-related deaths in the EU each year are from heroin overdoses and, although use of the drug appears to have stabilised, the problem is spreading from the cities.

Ecstasy use is falling in many parts of Europe as young people are disenchanted with the quality of pills on the dance scene. Many ecstasy users have turned to drugs such as amphetamines, the most commonly used drug after cannabis.

"Ecstasy in many countries seems to have peaked as a cultural phenomenon," Mr Hartnell said.