Alcohol, cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine: drugs of reasoned choice amongst young adult recreational drug users in England

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Abstract

This paper describes the current drugs consumption patterns of a cohort of English young adults who have been tracked, longitudinally, since they were fourteen. It compares their tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs consumption at 22 years (n=465) with when they were 18 years (n=529) using self-report questionnaires and in-depth interviews (n=86). It further explores whether, as a very drugwise/experienced sample of adolescents, this cohort are now beginning to settle down and reduce their substance use. The results suggest that any reductions in recreational drug use are likely to be delayed beyond traditional markers. The cohort have largely maintained their consumption habits with rates for current tobacco smoking (35.5%), regular drinking (82.3%), on-going drug involvement (past year, any drug, 52.1%) and more regular use (past month, any drug, 31.2%) being almost identical to their rates at 18 years. Current drug involvement is increasingly dominated by cannabis however. A minority continue to use ecstasy. LSD and amphetamine use have declined but cocaine trying (lifetime prevalence 5.9% at 18 years up to 24.6%) and use have increased dramatically. Mixing and combining substances is commonplace. Hedonistic motives for these substance use patterns remain but are now joined by the need to use psycho-active repertoires ‘sensibly’ to relax and reduce the stresses of the working week. This style of recreational drug use by generally conforming adults offers a severe challenge to current national drugs strategy.

Introduction

The preoccupation with adolescent drug use in the UK, as elsewhere over the 1990s, has shaped most drugs discourses and anti-drugs strategies. This is understandable given ‘the children of the nineties’ became so drug experienced compared with their predecessors. British youth have topped the European league tables for drug taking since their introduction (EMCDDA, 1999, ESPAD, 1997, Griffiths et al., 1997). Regional surveys in the UK have routinely found lifetime rates of 50–60% for mid adolescents (Aldridge et al., 1999, Barnard et al., 1996) and national surveys have found only slightly lower rates (Flood-Page et al., 2000, HEA, 1999, Miller and Plant, 1996). Nevertheless, whilst there is some conflicting evidence (ONS, 2000), it does seem likely that new millennial, adolescent birth cohorts are being slightly more abstentious (Balding, 1999, Plant and Miller, 2000).

An important research and policy question being sidelined by this focus on today's teenagers is what is happening to yesterday's cohorts? The aim of this paper is to discuss the substance taking behaviour of a sample of 1990s children as they become adults. Whilst at 22, we should not expect the processes of ‘settling down’ and ‘maturing out’ to be complete, we would traditionally expect to see significant moderation in progress. If this is not the case, we need to speculate on the reasons, giving particular attention to the backcloth of extended transitions to adult status.

Unfortunately because after reaching 16 young Britons take diverse educational and employment routes, it is extremely hard to find cost-effective ways of surveying them. We consequently have incomplete research evidence about substance use amongst British 18–25s and much of what there is was undertaken in the mid 1990s. A clutch of surveys of university students has reported that a significant minority are heavy drinkers, a majority regular drinkers and around 60% have tried illicit drugs, primarily cannabis (Webb et al., 1996). Time series surveys found that rates of drug use for mid 1990s medical students had more than doubled since the mid 1980s (Birch et al., 1999, Makhoul et al., 1998, Ashton and Kamali, 1995). Whilst cannabis was widely used these studies suggest only a minority (13–18%) had ever tried the dance drugs (amphetamines, LSD, ecstasy) with only around 10% having regular experience of these substances (Webb et al., 1996).

The main household survey upon which measuring drug use is reliant has also plotted increases in recent drug use amongst young adults across the last decade (Ramsay and Partridge, 1999). Past month use for 16–19 year olds rose from 20% in 1994 to 22% in 1998; for 20–24 year olds from 15% in 1994 to 17% in 1998 and finally for 25–29 year olds from 9% in 1994 to 11% in 1998. The HEA (1999) survey undertaken in 1996 found past month drug use was 21% for 16–24 year olds, but only 12% for 25–29 year olds. In 1992/1993, the first Youth Lifestyles Survey, a large national random household survey (14–25s) of England and Wales, found past year drug use was 22% (Graham and Bowling, 1995). The second survey conducted in 1998/1999, admittedly using a different administration technique, found this had risen to 32% for the same age group (Flood-Page et al., 2000). It also found past month drug use was 17% for 16–17 year olds rising steeply to 26% for 18–21 year olds but falling to 16% for 22–25s. This beginning trend is consistent with that found in the British Crime Survey (Ramsay and Partridge, 1999).

Finally, in terms of indicative data, we must refer to the clutch of studies of young adult night clubbers. Their rates of drug use are extraordinarily high and are broadly sustained across their twenties. With lifetime rates for amphetamines, LSD and ecstasy of 80–90% and recent use around 70%, alongside regular cannabis use and drinking, the clubbers appear the ultimate post-modern consumers (Forsyth, 1998, Akram, 1997, Release, 1997). These earlier findings are duplicated in the most recent studies in Northern Ireland (1999), Northern England (Measham et al., 2000) and in a survey of a self-reporting dance music magazine readership (Winstock, 2000). It is unwise to use these figures to support the view that young adult drug use is climbing dramatically however. The clubbers are a self-selecting group and at the most drug experienced end of the recreational spectrum. These studies should only be seen as further confirmation that young adult drug use is a significant issue and appears to be prevalent further into the 20–30 age range.

A further issue in this discussion is whether poly-drug use is becoming more prevalent. A common thread in nearly all the above research is that there is a strong correlation between smoking, drinking and recreational drug use. From mid adolescence onwards those who take drugs tend to be smokers and are almost invariably drinkers (Goddard and Higgins, 1999). Whilst the ‘going out’ sector of young adults still nominate alcohol as their favourite drug in the UK and across Europe, they then go on to identify tobacco and cannabis as important (Calafat, 1998).

With alcohol use, particularly heavier use, increasing amongst young adults, whether measured by the General Household Survey or discrete studies (Wright, 1999), and smoking rates in this age group not falling as they are amongst middle age Britons (Crace, 1997), the need to look at psycho-active consumption holistically is clear. However, due to the traditional separation of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drug use in terms of markets, policy and research foci there is little enquiry about combination or consecutive substance taking episodes. So official household surveys and even the national drug treatment database do not allow poly-drug repertoires to be adequately recorded. Yet when we do enquire about poly-drug use, we find high rates (Boys et al., 2000, Measham et al., 2000, ONS, 2000) and when we profile drug users in treatment its presence is endemic (Gossop et al., 1998). Given the warnings from the literature on drugs transitions across the adolescent—adult life course (Lynskey and Hall, 2000) and the inter-relationship between tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use (Blaze-Temple and Kai Lo, 1992, Bailey, 1992), this is a worrying omission with public health implications.

Finally, if we are to understand what is generating any delayed moderation and cessation of psycho-active drug use, we must look at what is different (beyond drugs availability) in the lives of today's young adults compared with their predecessors. There is a growing literature about the more uncertain and longer journeys to adult status currently being experienced by young adults. In the UK, over 40% are now in higher education, mainly from 18–21 years and another 20% in occupational training through to the end of their teenage years. Over half still live or return to live at home well into their twenties (Bynner et al., 1997). Marriage is being abandoned or delayed as is parenting. Young adults seem increasingly committed to pay off debts and yet simultaneously prioritise the purchasing of leisure and holidays. Conceptually this renovated personal agenda has been referred to as individualisation—the notion that today's younger citizens must navigate through a new more uncertain, rapidly changing world which requires flexibility and makes risk taking a functional necessity (Miles, 2000, Furlong and Cartmel, 1997). It seems important to begin to assess whether with delayed settling down markers-like home ownership, a permanent job, marriage and parenting being the demographic norm—a related delay in moderating drinking and drug use will also occur.

This paper reports on the only UK based longitudinal study of 1990s drug-wise adolescents (Parker et al., 1998) as they move into their twenties. By tracking the same sample since they were turned fourteen, in 1991, we describe the extent to which their tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use patterns have developed and changed through into the new decade. We, in particular, focus on their psycho-active consumption since they were 18 through to them becoming 23 years old. Equally importantly, we aim to locate their drug consumption within lifestyles and transitions’ perspectives, searching for key factors affecting their current ‘drugs’ status.

Section snippets

Methods

Back in 1991, the North West Longitudinal Study began by engaging a cohort of 700 young people just becoming 14 years old. They were tracked annually with self-report questionnaires until 1995, when they were 18 years old. The overall aim of the study was to explore how ‘ordinary’ English adolescents were growing up in respect of their use of leisure and how their attitudes to and consumption of alcohol and illicit drugs developed and changed across adolescence (Parker et al., 1998).

During

Results

Table 2 describes the basic demographic characteristics of the sample at 18 and 22. The profiles match those identified in the extended transitions literature. The majority are still living or have returned to the parental home after higher education. Very few are parents. Only 6.8% are unemployed with the vast majority in full and part-time work. The picture is of a hardworking group, but who are still some years away from marriage, parenting and home ownership.

Discussion

The study provides a moving picture of the lifestyles of a conforming, educated and employed cohort of new adults but still engaged in transitions to full independence. Despite these conforming characteristics their substance use remains high with levels of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use remaining stable across the 18–22 years life period. The changes in their psycho-active repertoires—continuing high rates of alcohol use and more cocaine use but with LSD and, to a lesser extent,

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