ABSTRACT
The use of illegal drugs among young people is currently cause for public concern in Britain. Since the late 1980s, empirical evidence points to the fact that the extent and variety of drug use has increased (Balding, 1994; ISDD, 1994; Parker et al., 1995). Recent evidence also suggests that young women are involved as much as, and in the case of some drugs, more than, young men (Measham et al., 1993). Placed alongside other ‘youth’ statistics in the public mind, such as ‘joyriding’, this phenomenon has been perceived as a social threat, debatably supplanting HIV/AIDS in magnitude.
