Children as young as seven and eight are using ecstasy and cannabis, according to an official report.
A Home Office survey found that some drug users had admitted taking ecstasy when they were just seven years old, while others said they smoked cannabis at age eight. The youngest reported user of cocaine was just nine. It is the first time that the crime survey report included the lowest ages at which respondents said they had tried the three most commonly taken banned substances. Detailed figures showed that almost a third of young people and adults who had ever taken cannabis, now a Class B drug, first tried it when they were under 16. By the same age, when buying alcohol and cigarettes is still illegal, 6 per cent of those who had ever taken Class A powder cocaine had tried it.
Of all those who had ever taken ecstasy pills, classified as Class A, 8.2 per cent had done so before their 16th birthday.
