ESPAD Summary En

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Legal notice

This publication of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is protected bycopyright. The EMCDDA accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of thedata contained in this document. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reect the ofcial opinions ofthe EMCDDAs partners, the EU Member States or any institution or agency of the European Union or EuropeanCommunities.

A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessedthrough the Europa server (http://europa.eu).

This summary is available in Bulgarian, Spanish, Czech, Danish, German, Estonian, Greek, English, French,Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Finnish, Swedish,Turkish and Norwegian. All translations were made by the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the EuropeanUnion. Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication.

Luxembourg: Ofce for Ofcial Publications of the European Communities, 2009

ISBN 978-92-9168-357-4

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2009

Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

Printed in SpainPRINTED ON WHITE CHLORINE -FREE PAPER


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Contents

Foreword 4

Summary 5

Methodology and data quality 5

Cigarettes 5

Alcohol 6

Illicit drugs 9

Other substances 10

Final remarks 11

Key drug-specic gures 14

Authors:Bjrn Hibell, Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs(CAN), Stockholm, Sweden.Ulf Guttormsson, Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs(CAN), Stockholm, Sweden.Salme Ahlstrm, Alcohol and Drug Research, STAKES, Helsinki, Finland.Olga Balakireva, Institute of Economy and Prognoses, NASU, Kiev, Ukraine.Thoroddur Bjarnason, Faculty of Social Science and Law, University ofAkureyri, Iceland.Anna Kokkevi, University Mental Health Research Institute, Athens, Greece.Ludwig Kraus, IFT Institut fr Therapieforschung, Munich, Germany.

Bibliographic details of the full report:Hibell, B., Guttormsson, U., Ahlstrm, S., Balakireva, O., Bjarnason, T., Kokkevi,A. and Kraus, L. (2009), The 2007 ESPAD report. Substance use amongstudents in 35 European countries. The Swedish Council for Information onAlcohol and Other Drugs, Stockholm, Sweden.

Details on how to obtain the full report are available at: http://www.espad.org


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We are pleased to present this summary of the 2007 European schoolsurvey ndings produced by the European School Survey Project on Alcoholand Other Drugs (ESPAD). We have made this summary available in 23languages to ensure the widest possible dissemination in Europe. It servesas a complement to the full report that is available in English.

This multilingual summary is a product of the cooperation framework thatexists between the EMCDDA and ESPAD. Our common aims are: tobroaden access to the information and expertise on alcohol and other drug

use among school students developed by the ESPAD project; to improve theavailability, quality and comparability of school survey data; and to gainmaximum analytical insight from the data available in this area.

The mandate of the EMCDDA is to collect, analyse and disseminate factual,objective, reliable and comparable information on the European drugsituation. The information provided by the ESPAD project is an importantsource of information for obtaining the European picture on youngerpeople. The ESPAD project provides a common approach to collectinginformation on substance use among 15- to 16-year-old students in Europeand allows trends over time to be assessed.

The work of the ESPAD project would not have been possible without thegenerous support of the Swedish Government, the Swedish NationalInstitute of Public Health and the Pompidou Group. We would also like totake this opportunity to thank all the governmental and non governmentalpartners in ESPAD countries that contribute to the funding, data collection,analysis and dissemination of this important work.

Wolfgang Gtz, Director, EMCDDA

Bjrn Hibell, ESPAD Coordinator

Foreword


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performed in 7 out of 16 federal states(Bundeslnder) while the Belgian data collection wasrestricted to the Dutch speaking part (Flanders).

The content of the international report is based onstandardised country reports and datasets deliveredto the coordinators and the database manager. Afew countries have experienced modest problems ofa methodological kind, but these are not of the

magnitude to seriously threaten the comparability ofthe results, and the overall validity is deemed high formost countries. The national cultural context in whichthe students have answered the questions has,however, most certainly varied.

Country sample sizes were close to or above therecommended number of 2 400 apart from thesmaller countries, where fewer, but all relevant,students were surveyed. However, a combination of asmall gross sample and a high school-dropout level in

Denmark led to a net sample which was too small tobe considered fully representative, and thereby fullycomparable.

Small differences in point estimates betweencountries or over time should be interpreted withcaution. As a rule of thumb, however, given the sizeof the national samples and the sampling methodsemployed, differences of more than a few percentagepoints can quite condently be considered signicant.

CigarettesA small number of questions regarding cigarettesmoking are given at the beginning of thequestionnaire. On average, in the 2007 survey, 58 %of the students in participating countries reportedhaving tried smoking cigarettes at least once and29 % had used cigarettes during the past 30 days.Two percent of all students had smoked at least apacket of cigarettes per day during the past 30 days.

The ranking orders of countries for lifetime andrelatively recent use (past 30 days) are more or lessthe same. High-prevalence countries for cigarette use

The main purpose of the European School SurveyProject on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) is tocollect comparable data on substance use among1516 year-old European students in order tomonitor trends within as well as between countries.So far four data collection waves have beenconducted within the ESPAD project. The rst studywas held in 26 countries in 1995, while the 2007data collection was performed in 35 countries. Thissummary presents key results from the 2007 surveyas well as ndings regarding the long-term trends.An initial section gives a short overview of themethodology.

Independent research teams in the participatingcountries form the basis of the collaborative project.In the 2007 ESPAD data collection more than100 000 students took part from the followingcountries: Armenia, Austria, Belgium (Flanders),Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic,Denmark, Estonia, the Faroe Islands, Finland, France,Germany (7 Bundeslnder), Greece, Hungary,Iceland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia,Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway,Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, theSlovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland,Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

Methodology and data quality

As in previous ESPAD studies, to provide ascomparable data as possible, the surveys wereconducted according to a standardised methodologyand with a common questionnaire. Data were mainlycollected during spring 2007 and the targetpopulation was students born in 1991, with a meanage of 15.8 years at the time of data collection.

Data were collected by group-administeredquestionnaires. The students answered thequestionnaires anonymously in the classroom withteachers or research assistants functioning as surveyleaders. With two exceptions the class-samples arenationally representative: in Germany the study was

Summary


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Summary 2007 ESPAD report

Alcohol

In all ESPAD countries at least two thirds of thestudents have drunk alcohol at least once during their

lifetime, with an ESPAD average close to 90 % in the2007 survey. The corresponding average gures forthe past 12 months and the past 30 days are 82 and61 % respectively. These gures were relativelyunchanged from 1995 to 2007 for lifetime and past12 months prevalences, while past 30 days guresincreased until 2003 before they dropped a little in2007, especially among boys. Between the last twosurveys there was also a clear decrease in theaverage proportion of students that had beendrinking beer and/or wine during the past 30 days.

The average gures above are of course based onvery divergent country gures. For example, alcoholuse during the past 30 days was reported by 80 %of the students in Austria and Denmark (limitedcomparability) but only by 31 % in Iceland and 35 %in Armenia.

The gures for lifetime, past 12 months and past 30days prevalences are about the same for boys andgirls. However, when it comes to higher frequencies

in the respective time frame (40, 20 and 10 times)the proportions are usually higher among boys.These high frequencies are mainly reported bystudents in Austria and Germany (7 Bundeslnder),while the Nordic countries Finland, Iceland, Norwayand Sweden belong to those with only very fewstudents who drink this often.

The total amount of alcohol consumed during thelast drinking day is usually low in countries wherethe students drink often, for example in Greece, andthe other way around for countries with lowconsumption frequencies. Countries with such apattern include the Nordic countries Finland,Iceland, Norway and Sweden. However, there areexceptions to this pattern and they include Denmark(limited comparability) and Austria in which thestudents report high frequencies as well as largequantities consumed. In the countries with the largestaverage quantities, Denmark (limited comparability)and the Isle of Man, the quantities for an averagestudent is about 34 times higher than in thecountries with the lowest average consumption(Armenia and Cyprus).

past 30 days are Austria, Bulgaria, the CzechRepublic and Latvia (4045 %) and low prevalencecountries are Armenia, Iceland, Norway andPortugal (719 %). There is no obvious geographical

pattern at hand, but students in central and easternEuropean countries are often among those reportinghigher rates of smoking.

In countries where more students smoke, one is alsomore likely to nd students reporting that cigarettesare easily obtainable. An early smoking debut (age13 or younger) is also associated, at the countrylevel, with high levels of use in the past month. Onaverage, 7 % of the students said that they hadbeen smoking cigarettes on a daily basis at the ageof 13 or younger. Daily cigarette use at this earlyage is most common among students in the CzechRepublic, Estonia, Latvia and the Slovak Republic(prevalence rates of about 13 %) and least commonamong students in Greece and Romania (around3 %).

At the aggregate country level, the genderdifferences in 2007 are negligible for smoking in thepast 30 days. However, in individual countries greatdifferences may be observable. For example, boyswere 16 percentage points above girls in Armeniaand conversely, girls were 19 percentage pointsabove boys in Monaco.

Over time, a slight decrease in the past 30 dayssmoking may be noticed, the total averageprevalence rate having dropped by four percentagepoints between 1995 and 2007 in ESPAD countrieswith comparable data for all four waves. If thecomparison is conned to the period between 1999and 2007, the drop in relatively recent smoking isseven percentage points. A small overall gender gap(4 percentage points) was noticed in 1995 but thisgap had vanished in 2007.

Only four countries give a contrary image regardingthe long-term downward trend in recent smoking,displaying higher levels in 2007 than in 1995. In allthose countries, however, the actual increases tookplace already between 1995 and 1999 and thesituation has been relatively stable thereafter. Hence,the overall picture of the trend in past 30 dayssmoking in the ESPAD countries is one of a decrease,or at least of a stabilized situation.


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Summary

pattern than the question about intoxication. Somecountries score high on both measures, for exampleDenmark (limited comparability), the Isle of Man andthe United Kingdom. However, there are countries in

which many students report heavy episodic drinkingduring the past 30 days, while they were rather lowon the ranking list for drunkenness for the sameperiod. Examples of such countries include Malta,Portugal, Estonia and Latvia.

On average 43 % of the ESPAD students reportedheavy episodic drinking during the past 30 days,and this was more common among boys (47 %) thanamong girls (39 %). Boys also dominated in a largemajority of the countries. In some few the gures

were about the same, but there are also countries inwhich more girls than boys stated this. The moststriking example is Norway in which 42 % of thegirls and 35 % of the boys reported heavy episodicdrinking during the past 30 days.

On average, heavy episodic drinking during the past30 days increased between 1995 and 1999, butalso between 2003 and 2007. In the latter periodthis is especially true among girls, with an increasefrom 35 to 42 %. In 1995 heavy episodic drinking

was on average much more common among boysthan girls, but this gap had diminished substantially in2007. Countries with a continuing upward trendbetween all four data collections include Croatia, theCzech Republic, Malta, Portugal and the SlovakRepublic.

Increases in the recent period are found in more thanhalf of the countries. The most pronounced increasebetween 2003 and 2007 is found in Portugal, wherethe proportion of students reporting heavy episodic

drinking during the past 30 days increased from 25to 56 %, i.e. by 31 percentage points. Othercountries with large increases include Poland (whichreturned close to the 1999 level after a drop in2003) (16 percentage points), France (15), Croatia(14) and Bulgaria (12).

A number of students reported problems during thepast 12 months related to their alcohol consumption.On the average level 15 % answered that they hadexperienced serious problems with parents and thegure was about the same (13 %) for performedpoorly at school or work, serious problems withfriends and physical ghts. Countries in which many

In nearly all countries boys drink larger quantitiesthan girls. The most pronounced contrast to this isIceland, where girls report larger quantities thanboys. In a large majority of the countries, beer is the

dominant beverage among boys while spirits is themost important beverage among girls in a little morethan half of the countries.

All in all, beer is the dominant beverage, accountingfor some 40 % of the amount consumed (in 100 %alcohol) on the last drinking day, and followed by30 % for spirits and 13 % for wine. Beer is evenmore dominant among boys, accounting for abouthalf their total consumption on the last drinking day.Girls have a more evenly distributed pattern, with

spirits as the most important type, constituting aboutone third of the total consumption.

On the country level there is a strong positiverelationship between reported alcohol consumptionfor the last drinking day and the perceived level ofintoxication on that day. Thus, in countries wherestudents reported that they consumed largerquantities of alcohol they also reported higher levelsof intoxication.

On average, half of the ESPAD students have beenintoxicated at least once during their lifetime, to thepoint of staggering when walking, having slurredspeech or throwing up. For 39 % of the students thishad happened during the past 12 months and for18 % during the past 30 days. There were genderdifferences in the frequencies of drunkenness withincountries, with higher gures for boys in somecountries and for girls in others, while on the averageESPAD level there were no gender differences.

Countries with many students that have been drunkduring the past 12 months usually have high guresfor drunkenness during the past 30 days. Countries inwhich many students report drunkenness this ofteninclude Denmark (limited comparability), the Isle ofMan, the United Kingdom and Austria, with guresfrom 49 to 31 % for past 30 days drunkenness.Countries on the other end of the scale includeArmenia (2 %) and Cyprus (9 %).

Another way of measuring drunkenness has been toask how often the students had been consuming vedrinks or more per occasion. This measure of heavyepisodic drinking shows to some extent a different


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Summary

Other drugs inquired about, but not included in theillicit drugs-index, are magic mushrooms, GHB andanabolic steroids. Lifetime use of magic mushroomswas reported by 3 % while GHB and steroids were

mentioned by 1 %, which is of the same magnitudeas reported experience of intravenous drug use.

Since cannabis is being the most frequently used illicitdrug, it is worthwhile taking a closer look at thissubstance. Use of cannabis in the past 12 monthswas reported by 14 % of all students while use in thepast 30 days was stated by 9 % of the boys and 6 %of the girls (7 % mean). In the two top-prevalencecountries (the Czech Republic and the Isle of Man)one in six students reported cannabis use in the past

30 days, indicating more regular cannabisconsumption in those countries. Only 12 % inArmenia, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Norway,Romania and Sweden reported such recent use.High-prevalence countries are most often found inwestern Europe.

In most countries, but not all, more boys than girlshave used cannabis in the past 30 days, especiallyin high-prevalence countries. Countries where manystudents report past 30 days cannabis use are in

many cases the same ones where many studentsreport having had the opportunity to try cannabis,but without doing so.

The relatively high prevalence rates of cannabis useamong young people in Europe raises the question ofits potential negative consequences for the individualand the society. By analysing the optional CAST-scalemodule the risk of cannabis-related problems wasestimated in the 17 ESPAD countries providing suchdata. Overall, one out of seven past-year cannabis

users (14 %) was classied as having a high risk ofdeveloping cannabis-related problems, and theaverage prevalence of high-risk users across countrieswas 2 %. Country specic differences in the risk ofharm from cannabis were found, and the percentageof high-risk users in a population corresponds to thecannabis use prevalence rates in the single countries.In other words, at population level the prevalence ofhigh-risk users increases with the prevalence ofcannabis use.

In those ESPAD countries with comparable data forall four waves, 12 % of the students reported lifetimeprevalence of illicit drugs in 1995 and this gure rose

students reported problems related to their alcoholconsumption include Bulgaria, the Isle of Man, theUnited Kingdom and Latvia. On the country levelthere is a positive correlation between problems

experienced and intoxication during the past 30days.

Most alcohol-related problems are on average morecommon among boys. This is most pronounced in thecase of physical ghts and trouble with the police.However, for some of the problems the averages areabout the same and for one (serious problems withfriends) it is even slightly higher among girls.

Illicit drugsOne-third of the students in the ESPAD countries ndcannabis readily available. Boys consider cannabisslightly more easily obtainable than girls do, thoughthe gender difference is fairly small. Amphetaminesand ecstasy are not considered as readily availableas cannabis.

On average, 23 % of the boys and 17 % of the girlshave tried illicit drugs at least once during their

lifetime according to the 2007 survey. The term anyillicit drug includes cannabis, amphetamines,cocaine, crack, ecstasy, LSD and heroin. Reporteduse of illicit drugs varies considerably across thecountries. In the Czech Republic, almost half (46 %)of the students report such use and relatively manystudents (roughly a third) did so also in France, theIsle of Man, the Slovak Republic and Switzerland.Only around 6 % reported illicit drug use in Cyprus,the Faroe Islands, Norway and Romania. Lowerprevalence rates are often found among the Nordiccountries and in eastern Europe.

The vast majority of the students who have tried illicitdrugs have used cannabis. Lifetime cannabis usewas reported by 19 % of the students while 7 % hadtried one or more of the other drugs included in theindex. Ecstasy, cocaine and amphetamines follows ina split second place (3 % each) and less commonlyreported were LSD, crack and heroin (12 %).Bulgaria, Estonia, the Isle of Man, Latvia and theSlovak Republic are among the top-ve countriesregarding lifetime ecstasy use in 2007 (prevalencerates around 67 %).


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while the lowest levels are reported by students fromArmenia, Austria, Russia and the United Kingdom(02 %). On average, slightly more girls than boysreport non-prescribed use of these drugs (8 % versus

5 %) and in the top eight countries, twice as manygirls as boys did so. In about half of the countriesthere is no gender difference to speak of however.The overall trend is fairly stable between 1995 and2007, and this is true looking at the gendersseparately, as well as for individual countries.

Having used alcohol together with pills(medicaments) in order to get high was reported by6 % on average in 2007. Slightly more girls thanboys did so (8 versus 5 %). This variable shows somesimilarities with the other one concerning use ofpharmaceutical drugs mentioned above. Firstly, theproportion of students stating lifetime prevalence forthese two variables is more or less of the samemagnitude. Secondly, this behaviour is fairly stableover time, at least on average in those countries withdata available for all four waves (with the exceptionof upward trends found in the Czech Republic andthe Slovak Republic and downward trends in Finland,Sweden and the United Kingdom). Third and nally,

this is another of the very few variables where thegirls are in a constant majority over time. During19952007 the girls are about four percentagepoints above the boys. Top-prevalence country forlifetime alcohol use together with pills in 2007 is theCzech Republic (18 %) and particularly low levels arenotable for Armenia and Ukraine (1 %).

Students from Cyprus, the Isle of Man, Malta andSlovenia report the highest lifetime prevalence ofinhalants in 2007 (16 %), while only 3 % mention thisin Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ukraine. The average forlifetime use of inhalants for all ESPAD countries is 9 %and there are no gender differences on theaggregate level. The rates for use in the past 12months and in the past 30 days follow that forlifetime use relatively well across countries. Notypical geographic pattern is observed the highestrates of inhalant use are reported from different partsof Europe. The lifetime prevalence gures remainrelatively stable over the period 19952007 amongcountries with data for all four waves. The biggestdrops have taken place in Lithuania and the UnitedKingdom (about 12 percentage points down) and an

to 21 % in 2003. However, the 2007 results indicatethat the upward trend in illicit drug use has come to ahalt since only 18 % of the students reported suchexperiences this year. This development is practically

the same for both genders, and the girls areconstantly about ve percentage points below theboys.

Even though the overall trend between 2003 and2007 is downward, a handful of countries displayincreases for 2007. In Estonia and the SlovakRepublic there are continuous increases between allfour measure points (19952007), while the CzechRepublic, Lithuania and Malta also display an overallupward trend when the period is considered all in all.

No country displays a continuous decrease, butIreland and the United Kingdom drop substantially inillicit drug use when the whole period is considered(14 percentage points down roughly), while there isalso a minor decrease in the Faroe Islands(6 percentage points down 19952007). It could benoted that even though Estonia and the UnitedKingdom are on the same prevalence level in 2007(about 28 %), they have reached that point fromopposite directions; an increase from 8 % in 1995 in

the case of Estonia and a decrease from 42 % in thatof the United Kingdom.

Since there is a high co-variation between illicit druguse and cannabis use on the country level, quitenaturally the development for lifetime cannabis use ismore or less the same as described for all illicit drugsabove. Boys display slightly higher rates of relativelyrecent cannabis use and the gender gap does notchange over the period in question.

The overall impression is that the increase in illicitdrug use between 1995 and 2003 noted among theESPAD countries has at least come to a halt, if not adecrease, especially considering that there are noincreases in any country for recent use of cannabisbetween 2003 and 2007.

Other substances

Non-prescribed lifetime use of tranquillisers orsedatives is most commonly reported in Poland,Lithuania, France and Monaco where about 15 % ofthe students indicated such use in the 2007 survey


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Summary

opposite development is notable for Finland and theSlovak Republic (6 points up).

Final remarksIt is well known that, on the individual level, there isoften a relationship between the use of differentsubstances. In the 2007 data, there are apparentassociations between the use of different substancesat the aggregate country level, and it can beconcluded that in countries where many studentsreport recent (past 30 days) alcohol use andintoxication, more students are likely to reportexperience of illicit drugs, inhalants and use of

alcohol together with pills, and vice versa. Non-prescribed use of tranquillisers or sedatives howevershows no correlations on the aggregate country levelwith use of the substances just mentioned.

Nine key variables were selected to give an overviewof the 2007 results per country: consumption of anyalcoholic beverage during the past 12 months,having been drunk during the past 12 months,alcohol volume (100 % alc.) consumed on the latestdrinking day, cigarette smoking during the past 30

days, lifetime use of marijuana or hashish (cannabis),lifetime use of any illicit drug other than cannabis,lifetime use of inhalants, lifetime use of non-prescribed tranquillisers or sedatives and lifetime useof alcohol together with pills in order to get high.

Individual country prevalence rates for the key-variables are compared to the averages for allcountries. The countries that score above or aroundaverage for most of the nine measures are Austria,the Czech Republic, Denmark (limited comparability),

Germany (7 Bundeslnder), the Isle of Man, theSlovak Republic and the United Kingdom. Thecountries with results mostly around or belowaverage are Armenia, Cyprus, Greece, Iceland,Portugal and Romania. The Faroe Islands could alsobe included in the list, even though it lacksinformation for two of the variables.

Two geographically distant countries, Armenia andthe Isle of Man, are the ones most distant regardingsubstance use. For all key variables compared,Armenian students report levels well below averagewhile the Isle of Man students are well aboveaverage for all measures but two. For instance,

roughly ten times more students in the Isle of Manreport drunkenness in the past 12 months, lifetimecannabis use or use of any other drug than cannabis,compared to Armenian students.

Five out of the seven countries mentioned above forscoring high on the key-variables are bordering eachother and are located relatively centrally in Europe.The other two, the Isle of Man and the UnitedKingdom, are bordering each other and not thatdistant from the other high-prevalence countries. Sixcountries (or seven if the Faroe Islands are included)were mentioned above for displaying low prevalencerates on the key variables. Those countries do notcluster. On the contrary; they are located relatively

distant from each other and spread throughoutEurope. With the exception of Romania, the lowprevalence countries are located on the borders ofthe European continent.

The overall substance-use trends for all the countrieswith data from all four waves display a slightlydifferent development depending on the variable infocus. A decrease for cigarette use in the past 30days is observable for the whole period. The genderdifference was four percentage points in 1995, but

this small gap has completely vanished in 2007. Theupward trend between 1995 and 2003 in lifetimeuse of illicit drugs predominantly cannabis hascome to a halt; the 2007 gure is three percentagepoints below that for 2003. Alcohol use in the past12 months, non-prescribed lifetime use oftranquillisers or sedatives, lifetime use of alcoholtogether with pills and lifetime use of inhalantsdisplay hardly any changes at all over all fourwaves. No changes in gender differences areapparent for illicit drugs or the other substancesmentioned.

An upward trend is notable, however, for heavyepisodic drinking throughout 19952007(9 percentage points increase), mostly explained bythe increasing prevalence rates reported among girlsin a number of countries. Most measures onsubstance use show a recent (20032007) stable orslightly downward trend on average, except forheavy episodic drinking.

Hence, the overall impression of the long-termchanges in substance use among the ESPAD students,based on countries with such data, is one of an


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2007200319991995

Summary gure. Trends in 16 substance use measures, by gender. 19952007. Average percentages for the1720 countries providing trend data for each variable.

Boys

Boys

Boys

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Boys

Girls

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Girls

Cigarette use during the last 30 daysby gender. 19952007. Percentages. Averages for 20 countries.

Beer consumption during the last 30days by gender. 19952007. Percen-tages. Averages for 20 countries.

Lifetime use of marijuana orhashish by gender. 19952007.Percentages. Averages for 20countries.

Lifetime use of tranquillisers orsedatives without a doctorsprescription by gender.

19952007. Percentages. Averages for 20 countries.

Daily cigarette use at the age of13 or younger by gender.19952007. Percentages.

Averages for 20 countries.

Wine consumption during thelast 30 days by gender.19952007. Percentages.


Use of marijuana or hashishduring last 30 days by gender.19952007. Percentages.


Lifetime use of alcoholtogether with pills by gender.19952007. Percentages.


Use of any alcoholic beverageduring the last 12 months bygender. 19952007.Percentages. Averages for19 countries.

Proportion reporting having hadve or more drinks on one occasionduring the last 30 days, by gender.19952007. Percentages.


Cannabis use at the age of 13 or younger by gender. 19952007. Per-centages. Averages for 19 countries.

Lifetime use of inhalantsby gender. 19952007.Percentages. Averages for 18

countries.

Use of any alcoholic beverageduring the last 30 days by gender.19952007. Percentages.


Lifetime use of any illicit drug bygender. 19952007.Percentages. Averages for20 countries.

Lifetime use of any illicit drug otherthan marijuana or hashish bygender. 19952007. Percentages.


Lifetime abstinence fromtobacco, alcohol, inhalants,tranquillisers or sedatives

and illicit drugs. 19952007. Percen-tages. Averages for 17 countries.


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Summary

improved situation, apart from the heavy episodicdrinking measure that display an increase throughoutthe period.

Trends in individual countries may however divergefrom the overall impression. Regarding recentchanges, students in Belgium (Flanders), Iceland,Ireland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom oftentend to report decreased levels of substance use formany of the variables. Countries with more recentincreases are Latvia and the Slovak Republic. A moremixed development is apparent in France, Portugaland Slovenia, where the alcohol variables showupward trends concurrently several drops for othersubstances such as illicit drug use. A contrary

situation is noted for Lithuania and Russia (Moscow),where alcohol and cigarette use is declining at thesame time as illicit drug use is rising.

Some long-term country trends could also bementioned. For instance, an example of a country forwhich most substance-use measures show noincreases at all across all four surveys is the UnitedKingdom. Actually, for most variables compared,British students show a decrease or at worst astabilised situation. Examples of other countries with

at least an overall stable situation, and for manyvariables a decreasing trend throughout the period,are Finland, Iceland, Ireland and Sweden.

Countries displaying rather more upward thandownward long-term trends are the Czech andSlovak Republics. To some extent, this is also the casefor Estonia and Lithuania, even though the guresfrom the latest wave in 2007 sometimes point to astabilised situation (but not to a return to the lowerlevels seen in the 1990s). Countries showing long-

term decreases in substance use are often located in

western Europe and countries displaying increasesare often found in eastern Europe. This is particularlytrue for recent increases between 2003 and 2007.

To sum up, trend developments over the 12 years ofthe ESPAD project indicate a fall in smoking in amajority of the countries. The situation is more or lessunchanged as regards alcohol use in the past 12months and the past 30 days. On the other hand,heavy episodic drinking shows a small but continuousincrease throughout the period. Use of illicit drugs isstill dominated by cannabis use. Four out of the sixcountries that had the highest prevalence forcannabis in 2003 show a decline in 2007, and not asingle country displays an increase for recent (past30 days) use of cannabis. The overall impressionregarding illicit drug use is that the upward trendbetween 1995 and 2003 now has come to a halt,with a slightly lower gure in 2007 than in 2003.

The fourth ESPAD data collection in 2007 gave a lotof new and important information about changes instudents substance use. The more data collectionsthat follow in the future, the more clearly the trendswill be pictured. We are already looking forward tothe next survey, to see whether the trend shift in illicitdrug use and the drop in cigarette consumption willcontinue and whether heavy episodic drinking willcontinue to be more common. The next datacollection will be of interest not only for this reasonbut also because it will be the rst follow-up study ofthe new countries (Armenia and Monaco) as well asfor the ve new countries that participated in theextra data collection in 2008. We hope that stillmore European countries will join in the next survey,in addition to the over 40 countries that are part of

the ESPAD project already.


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36 %

2635%

1625%

615%

5%

Data uncertainor not available

Non-participatingcountry

50 40 30 20 10 0 0 1 0 20 30 40 50

GirlsBoys

% %

Czech Republic (46)Spain2 (38)

Isle of Man (35)Switzerland (34)

France (33)Slovak Republic (33)

Monaco (29)Netherlands (29)

United Kingdom (29)Estonia (28)

Denmark2 (28)Belgium (Flanders)1 (25)

Italy (25)Bulgaria (24)Slovenia (24)

Germany (7 Bundesl.)1 (23)Austria (22)

Ireland (22)Latvia (22)

Lithuania (20)Russia (20)

Croatia (19)Poland (18)

Hungary (15)Malta (15)

Ukraine (15)Portugal (14)Iceland (10)Greece (9)Finland (8)Sweden (8)Cyprus (7)

Faroe Islands (6)Norway (6)

Romania (5)Armenia (4)

Figure 1aLifetime use of any illicit

drug (a). All students.2007. Percentages.

Figure 1bLifetime use of any illicit drug (a)by gender. 2007. Percentages.

(1) Belgium and Germany: limited geographicalcoverage.

(2) Denmark and Spain: limited comparability.

(a) Any illicit drug includes cannabis, ecstasy,amphetamines, LSD or other hallucinogens,crack, cocaine and heroin.

Key drug-specic gures


15/20

15


40 %

2539%

1524%

514%4%



50 40 30 20 10 0 0 1 0 20 30 40 50

GirlsBoys

% %

Czech Republic (45)Spain2 (36)

Isle of Man (34)Switzerland (33)

Slovak Republic (32)France (31)USA2 (31)

United Kingdom (29)Monaco (28)

Netherlands (28)Estonia (26)

Denmark2 (25)Belgium (Flanders)1 (24)

Italy (23)Bulgaria (22)Slovenia (22)

Germany (7 Bundesl.)1 (20)

Ireland (20)Russia (19)Croatia (18)Latvia (18)

Lithuania (18)Austria (17)Poland (16)Ukraine (14)Hungary (13)

Malta (13)Portugal (13)Iceland (9)Finland (8)Sweden (7)

Faroe Islands (6)Greece (6)Norway (6)Cyprus (5)

Romania (4)Armenia (3)

Figure 2aLifetime use of marijuanaor hashish. All students.2007. Percentages.

Figure 2bLifetime use of marijuana orhashish by gender. 2007.Percentages.

(1) Belgium and Germany: limitedgeographical coverage.

(2) Denmark, Spain and USA: limitedcomparability.


16/20

16


16 %

1115%

610%

35%2%



25 20 15 10 5 0 0 5 10 15 20 25

GirlsBoys

% %

Spain2 (20)Czech Republic (18)

Isle of Man (16)France (15)

Netherlands (15)Switzerland (15)

USA2 (14)Italy (13)

Belgium (Flanders)1 (12)Slovak Republic (11)United Kingdom (11)

Monaco (10)Denmark2 (10)

Ireland (9)Slovenia (9)Bulgaria (7)

Germany (7 Bundesl.)1 (7)Austria (6)Croatia (6)Estonia (6)Poland (6)

Portugal (6)Hungary (5)Lithuania (5)

Malta (5)Latvia (4)Russia (4)Cyprus (3)Greece (3)Iceland (3)Ukraine (3)Finland (2)Norway (2)Sweden (2)Armenia (1)

Faroe Islands (1)Romania (1)

Figure 3aUse of marijuana orhashish last 30 days. Allstudents. 2007.

Percentages.

Figure 3bUse of marijuana or hashishlast 30 days by gender.2007. Percentages.




17/20

17


13 %

1012%

79%

46%3%



20 15 10 5 0 0 5 10 15 20

GirlsBoys

% %

Isle of Man (16)Austria (11)France (11)Latvia (11)Ireland (10)

Monaco (10)Denmark2 (10)

Belgium (Flanders)1 (9)Bulgaria (9)

Czech Republic (9)Estonia (9)

Italy (9)Malta (9)

Slovak Republic (9)United Kingdom (9)

Spain2 (9)Germany (7 Bundesl.)1 (8)

Slovenia (8)Hungary (7)Lithuania (7)

Netherlands (7)Poland (7)

Switzerland (7)Portugal (6)Cyprus (5)Greece (5)Iceland (5)Russia (5)

Croatia (4)Sweden (4)Ukraine (4)Finland (3)Norway (3)Romania (3)

Armenia (2)Faroe Islands (1)

Figure 4aLifetime use of illicit drugsother than marijuana orhashish (a). All students.

2007. Percentages.

Figure 4bLifetime use of illicit drugsother than marijuana orhashish (a) by gender. 2007.Percentages.


(2) Denmark and Spain: limited comparability.

(a) Any illicit drug but cannabis includesecstasy, amphetamines, LSD or otherhallucinogens, crack, cocaine and heroin.


18/20

18


11 %

910%

58%

34%2%



25 20 15 10 5 0 0 5 10 15 20 25

GirlsBoys

% %

Poland (18)Lithuania (16)France (15)

Monaco (12)Italy (10)

Belgium (Flanders)1 (9)Czech Republic (9)

Hungary (9)Switzerland (8)

Spain 2 (8)Cyprus (7)Estonia (7)Finland (7)Iceland (7)

Isle of Man (7)Netherlands (7)

Sweden (7)USA2 (7)

Portugal (6)Croatia (5)Malta (5)

Slovak Republic (5)Slovenia (5)

Denmark2 (5)Greece (4)Latvia (4)

Norway (4)Romania (4)Ukraine (4)Bulgaria (3)

Faroe Islands (3)Germany (7 Bundesl.)1 (3)

Ireland (3)Austria (2)Russia (2)

United Kingdom (2)Armenia (0)

Figure 5aLifetime use oftranquillisers or sedativeswithout prescription. All

students. 2007.

Figure 5bLifetime use of tranquillisersor sedatives withoutprescription by gender.2007. Percentages.




19/20

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction

Summary the 2007 ESPAD report

Luxembourg: Ofce for Ofcial Publications of the European Communities

2009 18 pp. 21x29.7 cm

ISBN 978-92-9168-357-4


20/20

T D - 8 0 - 0 9 - 5 6 7 - E N- C

ISBN 978-92-9168-357-4

About the EMCDDA and ESPADThe European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) isone of the European Unions decentralised agencies. Established in 1993 and

based in Lisbon, it is the central source of comprehensive information on drugsand drug addiction in Europe.

The EMCDDA collects, analyses and disseminates factual, objective, reliableand comparable information on drugs and drug addiction. In doing so, itprovides its audiences with an evidence-based picture of the drugphenomenon at European level.

The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) is acollaborative effort of independent research teams in more than fortyEuropean countries, making it the largest cross-national research project onadolescent substance use in the world.

ESPAD was founded in 1993 on the initiative of the Swedish Council forInformation on Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAN) and with the support of thePompidou Group at the Council of Europe. The rst data-collection exercisewas conducted in 26 countries in 1995. The 2007 ESPAD report presents theresults from the fourth wave, conducted in 35 countries during 2007.

This multilingual summary is a product of the cooperation framework thatexists between the EMCDDA and ESPAD. Our common aims includebroadening access to the information and expertise on alcohol and other druguse among school students developed by the ESPAD project and improvingthe availability, quality and comparability of school survey data.

Documents

ESPAD Summary En