Substance use among Hungarian students higher than European average

The survey about the alcohol and drug consumption habits of 15-16 year olds was conducted with the participation of 96 thousand young people from 35 European countries. Hungary’s results show above the average tendencies when it comes to legal psychotropic drugs; smoking and drinking among students in Hungary appears to be higher than in other parts of Europe, index.hu reports.

According to the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD), 29% of Hungarian students reported to have smoked a cigarette in the past 30 days, which is 8% higher than the European average. Moreover, 55% reported to have consumed alcoholic drinks in the past 30 days, which exceeds the average by 7%.

The most striking piece of data shows that 39% of students admitted to heavy episodic drinking in the last month. This issue is not unique to Hungary; every third participant on the survey reported this behaviour. 78% of them also think that it is easy to acquire alcoholic drinks.

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13% of Hungarian 16-year-olds reported to have tried marijuana, which puts them 3% below the European average. The new, not yet regulated psychoactive drugs are treated collectively, and 4% of Hungarian students have tried them. These include the so called ‘herbal’, a synthetic drug similar to marijuana which has caused considerable issues in Hungary due to its availability and low price, but the data does not show a significant difference from the European average.

The overall conclusion of the survey considers the Hungarian participants to be among the average ESPAD students in terms of substance use, even though cigarette and alcohol use are somewhat higher than average. The results of the survey can be found here for each country, the Hungarian results are here.

Copy editor: bm

Source: index.hu