More teenagers are hitting the bottle than ever

9 May 2006

MADRID — Spanish teenagers are knocking back more of the hard stuff than ever before, a survey has found.

The amount of alcohol consumed by teenagers aged between 14-18 has risen by 15 percent in the past two years.

Carmen Moya, a Socialist deputy, presenting the survey which is part of the national plan against drugs, said 45 percent of young people drink alcohol every weekend.

She said there had been a slow rise in the amount of beer drunk by teenagers compared to spirits or cocktails.

Moya said it was “worrying” that so many young people have to get drunk or take drugs to enjoy themselves.

But against this background, she said there was no widespread concern about the steady rise in the use of alcohol or narcotics.

Moya said only 5.7 percent of those asked for the survey listed drugs as one of the three main problems confronting Spain.

She said there was now a problem of “invisibility” in which drug use was confined to well-bred students or workers who use them amongst friends.

In comparison, she said, during the 1980s, drug use among young people caused a social scandal.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news