Copyright: 1999 Cape Argus Source: The Cape Argus Contact: http://www.inc.co.za/online/cape_argus/ Mail: 122 St George's Mall, Cape Town 8001, South Africa Fax: 27 21 488 4975 Pubdate: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 Author: Andrea Botha UCT PROBE SHOWS ABUSE SOARS AMONG SCHOOL-KIDS Cape Town - Cape Town teenagers are becoming serious drug abusers, with Grade 11 pupils in the city spending about R22-million a year on dagga, Mandrax, cigarettes and alcohol. This is revealed by a drug survey among grade 8 and 11 (standard 6 and 9) pupils by the department of psychiatry at the University of Cape Town, the National Urbanisation and Health Research Programme and the bio-statistics division of the SA Medical Research Council. The survey was conducted at 39 representative state schools around the Peninsula. Only pupils in grades 8 and 11 were asked to fill in the questionnaires, during a normal school period while teachers were absent. The study found that Grade 11 students: Spent an average of R10 a week on cigarettes and R20 a week on liquor. * Spent most on Mandrax, with girls who used it spending an average of R52 per week and boys R30. * Spent R14-million a year on alcohol. And dagga use had almost doubled for girls and boys in the past seven y ears. In both grades 8 and 11 it was found that use rates were consistently higher for boys for all drugs except Mandrax. Ingrid von Stern of the Cape Town Drug Counseling Centre in Observatory said there had been "a huge increase" in the number of teenagers seeking treatment for substance abuse. "Two of every three people who come to us are teenagers and a large proportion of them are under 16," she said. Their youngest client was 12 years old. Ms Von Stern said teenagers would steal money from parents, friends and family and would even prostitute themselves to get money for drugs. The use of drugs among teenagers also went hand in hand with the rave scene, which was growing in popularity. "There are substantial economic implications of substance use by high school students," says the report. "One is that the direct or indirect provision of alcohol and drugs to school-going youth is clearly big business that needs to be tackled head-on." It warns that "a large number of students are at risk for the adverse consequences of substance use. Further analysis of the data will be done to show that such consequences are likely to include increased risk of unprotected sex, violence and transport injuries." The MRC/UCT study showed that although alcohol and cigarettes were the substances most abused by both grades, there was a growing use of harder drugs. Ms Von Stern said most of the centre's clients needed treatment for cannabis-Mandrax addiction, but there had also been a big increase in teenagers seeking help for heroin abuse. The MRC/UCT data suggests that by the time most boys reach grade 11, almost 6% will have tried Mandrax at least once. The survey also revealed that: n About 40% of Grade 8 boys (about 14 years old) had smoked cigarettes, 41% had used alcohol, 8% had smoked cannabis and 7% had sniffed glue. * A total of 58% of Grade 11 boys (aged about 17) had smoked cigarettes, 66% had used alcohol, 32% had smoked cannabis and 16% had sniffed glue. The data was collected during the second and third terms of 1997. The findings were compared with those of a previous UCT and MRC study in 1990. The researchers are now working on further studies in connection with substance abuse. These include, the nature and extent of violence and its relationship to drugs, whether there is a "gateway" effect causing adolescents to progress from the use of one substance to another, demographic factors such as age, gender and race and academic achievement. A preliminary analysis of the data had shown that last month teenage users of cigarettes, alcohol and cannabis were more likely to have repeated a year in school than those who had not used the substances. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake