Young people, recreational drug use and harm reduction.
Fletcher, A., Calafat, A., Pirona, A. & Olszewski, D.
(2011) Addiction, 106 (Suppl. 1), 37–46. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.03316.

 

ABSTRACT

 This chapter begins by reviewing the prevalence of recreational drug use and related adverse health outcomes among young people in European countries. It then employs a typological approach to review and discuss the current range of responses that aim to reduce the harms associated with young people’s recreational drug use in Europe. These responses include: individually focused and group-based interventions (school-based drugs education and prevention, mass media campaigns, motivational interviewing, and youth development programmes) and ‘settings-based approaches’, which make changes to recreational settings, such as nightclubs, or institutional settings, such as schools, to address the social and environmental background of young people’s drug use.

 Keywords: young people, drug use, prevalence, harm, intervention, Europe.