All About Drugs and Young People

Essential Information and Advice for Parents and Professionals

Julian Cohen

• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780857007902
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Addiction in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Packed with information, advice and learning activities, this book tells you what you need to know about drugs, young people's drug use, and how you can help them stay safe.

It covers everything from what the effects are and why young people take drugs, to how to negotiate drug rules and ways to prevent and minimise harm. An easy to use section contains factual information about various drugs, covering a description of each drug, street names, a brief history, legal status, availability, extent of use and cost, effects, possible harms, and harm reduction advice. The newest and emerging drugs, such as legal highs, are included, as well as illegal drugs, alcohol, caffeine and tobacco.

If you are working with or supporting young people or are a parent or carer, this is the book you need to help you understand drugs and respond positively and effectively to young people's drug use.

D

THE DRUGS

ALCOHOL

WHAT IT IS

Alcohol is made by the fermentation of fruits, vegetables or grains and mainly consists of flavoured water and ethyl alcohol (ethanol). Beer, lager and cider are usually about one Part Alcohol to twenty parts water. Wine is about two to four times as strong and distilled spirits such as whisky, rum and gin are about half water and half alcohol.

Half a pint of normal pub strength beer, cider or lager is regarded as roughly one unit of alcohol. This is the alcohol equivalent of about one small glass of wine or one single pub measure of spirits. Some beers, lagers and ciders are made to be especially strong and may contain up to twice as much alcohol as the same volume of normal brands.

STREET NAMES

Street names for alcohol include bevvy, booze, drink, jar and plonk.

BRIEF HISTORY

Making and drinking alcohol dates back to at least 6000 BC and has been an integral part of many societies ever since. While the fermentation processes needed to make wines and beers were discovered in prehistoric times, the distillation of spirits is thought to be a mere 1000 years old.

Alcohol has been central to many religious ceremonies and social events ranging from the crowning of monarchs, war-making, births, marriages, anniversaries, commemorations and funerals. It has a long history of being consumed with meals and also, especially in the form of beer, may predate bread as a basic food product that is rich in carbohydrates. In earlier times brewing was mainly left to women and many young children would have consumed beer on a daily basis. In the Middle Ages beer was also popular because it had to be boiled, contained bug-killing yeast and alcohol, and was less likely to give you cholera than local water sources. It could also be stored for longer than grain or bread without fear of pest infestation or rotting.

British people have drunk nut-brown ales for centuries. Between 1720 and 1750 there was an epidemic of gin drinking, resulting in an Act of Parliament which put a high tax on gin and curbed its retail sale. In London the response was riotous protests. In the 18th and 19th centuries excessive alcohol consumption was common in the UK, to an extent that far exceeds current levels of drinking. The year 1848 saw new laws introduced to close public houses between midnight on Saturday and noon on Sunday and in 1872 there was a ban on weekday drinking between midnight and 6am. Modern licensing controls were first introduced during the First World War in an attempt to limit drinking by soldiers. By the latter 19th century temperance movements were set up by doctors, clergy and other upholders of ‘morality’ to try to persuade the public of the evils of alcohol use and the need to acquire better habits.

In America the temperance movements were strong enough to persuade the then government to introduce prohibition from 1919. This attempted to outlaw the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol. Although overall alcohol consumption did decline, there was a rise in alcohol consumption in many cities along with significant increases in organized crime related to its production and distribution. Pressure mounted to repeal prohibition laws and by 1933 the US Government acted. Although prohibition was dead nationwide it survived in a few southern and border states.

In the UK drinking increased significantly in the 1990s, especially among young people, and saw the introduction of new high strength lagers and beers and alcopops, alcoholic drinks that do not taste so much of alcohol. In England and Wales the 2003 Licensing Act introduced more flexible licensing hours but also strengthened powers to regulate at the point of sale and deal with licensed premises.

With recent concern about increased drinking in the UK, and not only among young people, there have been fierce debates between the drinks industry and those concerned about the health impact of excessive drinking with regard to restricting alcohol advertising and promotions and introducing minimum pricing for alcoholic drinks. As yet, the UK government has prevaricated about such matters.

LEGAL STATUS

It is not illegal for a child over 5 years old to consume alcohol away from licensed premises. Strictly speaking it is illegal for an adult, including a parent, to give alcohol to children aged under 5 years old.

It is an offence for a vendor to knowingly sell alcohol to an under-18-year-old. Doing so can result in a fine and loss of licence to sell alcohol. A 14-year-old can go into a pub alone but not consume alcohol. A 16-year-old can buy and consume beer, port, cider or perry (but not spirits) in a pub if having a meal in an area set aside for this purpose. Some cities and towns have by-laws restricting drinking of alcohol on the streets at any age. Police have powers to confiscate alcohol from under-18s who drink in public places. In addition there are laws relating to being drunk and disorderly and regarding drink-driving.

AVAILABILITY, EXTENT OF USE AND COST

As with adults, other than caffeine, alcohol is by far the most common drug of choice among young people. Young children are usually introduced to using alcohol at home under parental supervision. A recent national survey of 11–15-year-olds attending secondary schools in England found that 12 per cent of 11-year-olds claimed to have ever tried alcohol, rising to almost three quarters of 15-year-olds (Health and Social Care Information Centre 2013). Only 1 per cent of 11-year-olds said that they had drunk some alcohol in the week before the survey, rising to 25 per cent of 15-year-olds. Almost one in five 15-year-olds said they drank alcohol at least once a week, usually at the weekend. Alcohol consumption increases significantly for young people aged over 16 years old, with 16–24-year-olds being more likely to binge drink and become drunk, than any other age group (Health and Social Care Information Centre 2012b).

Overall, the level of alcohol consumption among young people in the UK doubled in quantity over a ten-year period from around 1990 (Department of Health 2009). During this period new designer drinks with high alcohol content, such as strong beers, lagers, ciders and alcopops, were introduced by alcohol manufacturers and specifically targeted at young people. Young people were drinking greater quantities of alcohol and drinking more often, and more were drinking regularly with the aim of becoming drunk. While boys tended to drink greater quantities of alcohol and more often than girls, surveys began to indicate that girls were catching up with boys in their alcohol consumption, especially with their use of alcopops and spirits, particularly vodka. Class differences in alcohol consumption among young people are not as significant as those for cigarette smoking, although social class and disposable income will influence the type of drinks consumed and where drinking takes place, and binge drinking is more likely among young people in more deprived areas.

Young people in the UK remain among the highest consumers of alcohol in the whole of Europe (ESPAD 2012) but there is evidence that their overall level of consumption has decreased over the past few years (Health and Social Care Information Centre 2013). However, this more recent trend may be more indicative of a fall in the number of young people who drink, rather than any significant decrease in the amount of alcohol consumed by the many young people who continue to drink regularly and heavily.

Most young people are given their first drink by their parents or another family member. Rather than buying it directly, most of the younger age range obtain alcohol by being given it by friends and siblings or by asking someone else to buy if for them. Once into later teens many young people are able to pass for 18 years old and buy alcohol in pubs and clubs, although they may still find it difficult to buy it from shops and supermarkets and have to rely on other people to get it for them from these places.

Regular alcohol use, or a binge session, can be expensive but alcohol consumption can be relatively cheap when it involves high strength/low cost lagers and ciders bought in large bottles or in packs containing a quantity of bottles or cans. The advent of low cost brands of spirits bought in large bottles, happy hours and other offers at pubs, bars and clubs has also made regular drinking relatively inexpensive. Alcohol is also sold at low prices on the black market and is sometimes available in this way to young people, particularly in poorer areas.

EFFECTS OF USE

Alcohol is a depressant which starts to have an effect within five to ten minutes. The effects can last for several hours, depending on the amount consumed. Effects also depend on how quickly it is drunk, whether there is food in the user’s stomach and their body weight.

After four units (equivalent to two pints of ordinary strength beer or three or four small glasses of wine) most people feel less inhibited and more relaxed. After about eight units drinkers become unco-ordinated and slur their speech. More alcohol may result in staggering, loss of balance, being sick and visual distortion. Excessive amounts will lead to loss of consciousness. Since tolerance develops with regular use, the effects will also depend on how used to drinking someone is.

Some drinkers become aggressive and argumentative, especially if they are already stressed or wound up. A lot of violence on the streets and in the home (much of it directed at women and children, but also much between young males) happens after people, especially males, have been drinking...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Of Related Interest
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• The Author
• Introduction
• A Understanding Young People’S Drug Use
• B Be Prepared
• C Dealing With Specific Situations
• D The Drugs
• E Where To Find Out More
• References
• Index
• Also available