A profile of adolescent cocaine use in Northern Ireland.
BACKGROUND
The image of cocaine as a 'party' drug used by more affluent members of society has begun to change as the levels of use of the drug rise amongst school aged young people.


METHODS
Cocaine use patterns amongst young people aged 13-16 years who were participating in the Belfast Youth Development Study, a longitudinal study of adolescent drug use was explored. Data was collected through an annual datasweep in participating schools. This paper includes data collected in years 3, 4 and 5 of the study.


RESULTS
The results show higher levels of cocaine use amongst this age group than reported in much of the existing harm reduction literature. Lifetime use was 3.8% at age 13-14 years, rising to 7.5% at 15-16 years. The profile indicated that adolescent cocaine users were more likely to be female, live in disrupted families and experience social deprivation which is similar to existing adolescent drug use profiles. There was also some evidence of experimental cocaine use amongst the sample.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings provide further evidence for the development of age appropriate school focused harm reduction initiatives and continued monitoring of contemporary trends of use of cocaine amongst school aged young people.
McCrystal
Patrick
P
Institute of Child Care Research, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queens University Belfast, 6 College Park, Belfast BT7 1LP, United Kingdom. P.McCrystal@qub.ac.uk
Percy
Andrew
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000453:epidemiology; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009660:Northern Ireland