A survey of academics from European schools revealed marked differences in the way young people on the continent use drugs and the Internet.
The European School Survey on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) Project, which surveyed 100,000 15- and 16-year-olds in 35 European countries, published today through the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
He discovered that scholars are now most likely to have smoked an e-cigarette like a genuine cigarette; Young Danes are the biggest drinkers; Eastern Europeans are the maxims who probably use artificial drugs; and that Italians are big marijuana smokers. In Iceland, adolescents tend to use drugs.
Across Europe, the use of vapers is now comparable to the use of classic cigarettes: two out of five academics reported that they looked both. Vaping is the most popular among Lithuanian children, two-thirds have already used an e-cigarette and those in Monaco. , with 41% of them regularly.
One in five European teenagers reported smoking cigarettes lately, compared to one in three in 1995, the highest figure in Italy and Bulgaria, with one in three teenagers smoking a cigarette last month, compared to only 5% in Iceland.
One in six teenagers reported smoking a cigarette before the age of 14. In Lithuania and Latvia, one in 3 teenagers had smoked before the age of 14, compared to only 7% in Iceland.
The survey found that alcohol intake has also declined in more than two decades: just under a portion of teens reported drinking alcohol last month, while 13% said they were drunk; however, one in 3 European teenagers reported drinking alcohol before the age of 14.
In Georgia, 60% of adolescents reported drinking alcohol before age 14, compared to only 7% in Iceland. Georgia also had the highest proportion, one in five, that reported consuming alcohol before age 14.
The highest normal and most common drinkers of the students are the Danes, with three-quarters drinking alcohol last month and 40%, twice the proportion of any other European country, admitting that they were given drunk.
On average, nearly one in five of the 15- and 16-year-olds surveyed reported using an illegal drug (the maximum hashish), a figure that has remained strong over the past decade. Students from the Czech Republic (29 per cent) and Italy (28 per cent) were the maximum likely to use illicit drugs, and in Kosovo it was probably the highest minimum, at 4. 2 per cent.
Across Europe, respondents who tried illicit drugs under the age of 14 were rare. Younger hashish consumers came here from France and Italy, while younger consumers of speed and crack were in Bulgaria.
Just under one in ten academics reported a drug on the black market, such as a tranquilizer or painkiller. In Slovakia (23%), Latvia (22%), rates were more than double the European average.
Students at most likely to check LSD and MDMA came here from Latvia and Estonia, while students from Cyprus were probably the maximum for having consumed crack or cocaine powder. Estonians were the top users probably of new psychoactive ingredients such as spices and mephedrone. and Latvians were most likely to have abused inhaled ingredients.
The survey also interviewed academics about their social media, gambling and gambling habits. Students in Romania, Montenegro and Ukraine spent the most time on social media, and one in 4 spent more than six hours a day on those sites on school days. social media users were in Cyprus, Bulgaria, Kosovo and Georgia.
The maximum number of common players came here from Bulgaria and Sweden. One in five academics said he played, the highest likely to play in Greece and Cyprus.
The ESPAD survey echoed in the UK, although figures on drug use among young people in England and Wales are expected to be published through the NHS next year.
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