Irish youth top European table in solvent abuse

Young Irish people have the highest rate of solvent abuse in the EU, a major study on drug use across Europe, to be published today, shows.

Teenagers aged 15 to 16 are also found to have the third most permissive attitude to drunkenness in the study from the Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

They are also increasingly likely to have been drunk at least once in their lives.

The centre's report will also express concern at the rise of "binge" drinking among Europe's young people.

When asked if they had been drunk 40 or more times in their lives, 15 per cent of Irish 15- to 16-year-olds said they had. This compares with 24 per cent of the age group in Denmark and 18 per cent in Britain. The lowest rate was found in Italy, at 1 per cent.

The centre is publishing two reports today - Annual Report 2003: the state of the drugs problem in the European Union and Norway and Annual Report 2003: the state of the drugs problem in the acceding and candidate countries to the EU.

For the first time the centre's report on the EU countries examines alcohol use and particularly focuses this year on young people's drug and alcohol use.

The information on young people is drawn from studies by the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs.

Some 22 per cent of Irish 15- to 16-year-olds said they had abused solvents, the highest rate in the EU. Britain is found to have the next highest rate, with 15 per cent, and Portugal the lowest, with 3 per cent saying they have abused solvents.

Solvents include glues, lighter fuels, hairsprays, deodorants and other aerosol products and are abused by being sniffed. Such abuse can be fatal.

The study asked schoolchildren whether they approved of getting drunk once a week. The least permissive were the Italians where 80 per cent said they would not approve of weekly drunkenness.

In Ireland, the majority (56 per cent) said they approved of weekly drunkenness, with just 44 per cent saying it was wrong. Only the Danish (68 per cent) and the British (64 per cent) schoolchildren were more tolerant of weekly drunkenness.

Some 72 per cent of Irish 15- to 16 year-olds reported being drunk at least once in their lifetime, up from 67 per cent in 1995. Figures are higher in just three of the other 15 countries - Britain and Finland, (both 76 per cent) and Denmark, where 89 per cent said they had been drunk at least once.

Disapproval of drugs other than alcohol varied less among schoolchildren. For example, disapproval of ecstasy use varied from 71 per cent of young people in Greece to 90 per cent in Denmark. In Ireland 87 per cent of 15- to 16-year-olds said they disapproved of using ecstasy.

Dr Hamish Sinclair, head of the Drug Misuse Division with the Health Research Board said: "In Ireland we tend to be more permissive about alcohol misuse compared to other drugs."