NEWS: AAP 2/09/07- Youth 'know drug risks but do it anyway'

[Chronik Fatigue]

Youth 'know drug risks but do it anyway'

September 2, 2007 - 1:34PM

Almost all young Australians understand that drugs and alcohol can damage their mental health, but this knowledge is doing nothing to dampen their enthusiasm for substance use, a study has found.

A national survey of almost 4,000 teenagers and young adults has found that more than 85 per cent know cannabis, alcohol and tobacco are harmful and that cutting back would reduce the risk of depression and other mental health problems.

But the findings, published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia, were vastly at odds with the high rates of drinking, smoking and drug taking among young Australians.

Researchers from the ORYGEN Research Centre at the University of Melbourne said this proves that "knowledge does not translate into behaviour", and shows new campaign strategies are needed to bring rates down.

"Our findings suggest that simply raising awareness of the link between substance use and mental disorder in the general population is not sufficient," said lead researcher Dr Dan Lubman.

To change their behaviour, a young person would need to believe that they could be vulnerable to developing a mental illness, and that abstaining or limiting substances could help them avoid this, he said.

The study involved 3,746 people aged 12 to 25 who were presented with a vignette portraying young people with schizophrenia, depression or social phobia, and questioned them about the role of different substances.

More than 85 per cent agreed that alcohol, tobacco and marijuana were harmful for the young people portrayed and that avoiding alcohol or cannabis could reduce the risk of mental illness.

Females were much more likely to link substances with mental health risks than males. And older participants aged 18 to 25 were less likely than younger people to identify the risk, particularly in relation to cannabis.

"Importantly, young people with higher levels of psychological distress were also less likely to report alcohol, marijuana and tobacco use as harmful," Dr Lubman wrote.

The researchers said public health campaigns should provide clear, evidence-based information specifically targeting particular groups of young people.

© 2007 AAP

 

[Splatt]

Reducing the risk of depression? Fuck off. If i dont have a substance of choice I'm a depressed fuck, but slightly depressed fuck using stuff..

And SSRIs are all placebo shit.

 

[peaked]

And older participants aged 18 to 25 were less likely than younger people to identify the risk, particularly in relation to cannabis.

I hate the way the above is worded. Young people generally don't have enough/any experience with cannabis to make a proper judgement about how harmful (or rather, how relatively harmless) it can be. If anything, the younger generation have been exposed to far more political propoganda about the evils on cannabis - during the 90's (well, beginning in 87) we took a huge step forward in terms of drug policy in SA. One could grow up to 12 hydro plants and not be considered a criminal. This greatly reduced the strain on the courts as they didn't need to waste their time with the harmless people just growing pot for themselves. It also allowed police resources to be used on things that actually benefit the community. Generally speaking, I think most people brought up during this time would have a fairly relaxed attitude towards pot. Now, thanks to the people with their head stuck in the sand (by which i mean those with conservative views regarding drug laws), we've taken 3 steps backwards in terms of policy and are making criminals of anyone growing hydro, even if its just one plant. Its reefer madness all over again, with the uneducated wrongly assuming it must be incredibly harmful for you to warrant it being illegal. It's such a shame to think that we'd taken the first steps towards ending the discrimination against drug users, only to have it all taken away again.