Young People and Drug Use

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) agreed in 2019 to begin a self-commissioned workstream investigating young people’s drug use. The ACMD has discussed young people’s drug use in previous reports, including in ‘Hidden Harm’ (2003), ‘Prevention of Drug and Alcohol Dependence’ (2015) and ‘Drug Misuse Prevention’ (2022). The ACMD has also considered vulnerability to drug dependence in ‘What are the risk factors that make people susceptible to substance misuse problems and harms?’ (2018) and young people have been identified as a group where vulnerability to drug use may be more common.