A cross-European survey has found an increase in alcohol use, heavy episodic or binge drinking, smoking and cannabis use among Irish school children.
The report found almost a third of Irish school children had tried smoking, almost 40 per cent had sampled e-cigarettes while 41 per cent had used alcohol in the last 30 days – up from 36 per cent in 2015.
The European Schools Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) report, a survey on substance use among students aged 15 and 16 years across 39 countries, is carried out every four years.
The Irish-arm of the study includes data from 1,949 Irish students who were born in 2003 across 50 secondary schools, and was conducted by the TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland on behalf of the Department of Health.
Among the key findings of the 2019 report were the following:
- Smoking: 32 per cent of respondents had tried smoking and 14 per cent were current smokers (reported smoking in the last 30 days), with 5 per cent smoking…
