Drugs and Alcohol - British teenagers

Here is a report from a few years ago about British teenagers.

Is the situation different in your town?
How is it different?
In your opinion, what are the reasons for the difference?

Two separate surveys suggest that Britain's teenagers are amongst the heaviest drug-users
and drinkers in Europe. The British government has introduced a number of measures to
tackle the use and supply of drugs, particularly among young people.

The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs interviewed 15 and 16-year olds
in 35 countries. 26% of boys and 29% of girls in the UK had indulged in binge drinking at
least three times in the previous month. For the purpose of the study, binge drinking was classed
as having more than five alcoholic drinks in a row. In the same survey, 42% of boys and 35%
of girls admitted they had tried illegal drugs at least once.

According to another survey, by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction,
two in five 15-year-olds in the UK have tried cannabis. This number is higher than anywhere else
in Europe. The UK has also the joint highest number of young cocaine users, alongside Spain.

The British government has recently unveiled new plans to fight the problem of drug abuse
in the United Kingdom, also among teenagers. According to the new proposals, young offenders
will have to attend drug treatment as part of community service. British police will be able to
give people blood tests for drugs when they arrest them, not just when they charge them with
an offence. Dealers working near a school or using children to help sell drugs will face tougher
penalties.

But schools also try to fight the problem of drug use themselves. At the beginning of 2005 a
British state school has introduced for the first time random drug testing. Students from a
school in Kent will have mouth swabs taken to detect drug use. Each week 20 names will
be selected by computer and the swabs sent off to a drug testing laboratory. Results will be
available three days later. The school's head teacher says that no child will be tested against
his or her wishes. Children who test positive will not be expelled from the school, but those
who sell drugs will.

Vocabulary

survey

a collection of information for a particular purpose

drinker

here: a person who drinks alcohol

measure

here: an action to achieve some purpose

tackle

try to deal with something (a problem)

supply

provision of something which is needed

indulged

if you indulge (in something), you take pleasure in it

binge drinking

uncontrolled drinking over a period of time

was classed as

was categorised as

admitted

here: agreed that something has happened

addiction

the state of being dependent on something, for example drugs or alcohol

joint

shared, common

alongside

together with; next to

unveiled

made known publicly; revealed

drug abuse

improper or excessive use of narcotics

community service

unpaid work for the community, often as an alternative to prison

charge them with

accuse them of

dealers

here: people selling drugs

state school

a school maintained by the state, providing free education

random

without a plan; irregular

mouth swabs

tests taken with a small piece of cotton which is put into a person's mouth in order to take a sample of their saliva

detect

discover or reveal

expelled

forced to leave