Is it possible kids in England are starting to use hard-core drugs as early as the age of seven? Even for a veteran counselor for both in-class and online drug classes, I found it hard to believe. Yet that is just what I read recently in an article in one of the United Kingdom’s most-respected periodicals.
On British government survey found some drug users had admitted taking ecstasy when they were just seven years old, while others said they smoked marijuana by age eight. The youngest reported user of cocaine was just nine. This as reported in telegraph.co.uk.
In previous surveys youth under age 10 had admitted to experimentation by age 10 with alcohol and marijuana but never with harder drugs.
The disturbing survey also revealed that almost 1/3 of marijuana users began using the drug before the age of 16. By the same age, when buying alcohol and cigarettes is still illegal, 6 per cent admitted having tried cocaine.
Of all those who had ever taken ecstasy pills, 8.2 per cent had done so before their 16th birthday.
On a positive note tobacco use in the United Kingdom appears to be declining. A quarter of 11 to 15-year-olds had ever tried a cigarette, the lowest proportion since 1982.
Parents need to continue to educate their children to the dangers of substance abuse. They need to talk to their children and make sure it is well-known that the family policy is not to use any drugs or alcohol. Parents may even want to take an online drug class or an online tobacco class and go over the material with their kids.