The European Schools Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) has conducted surveys of school-going children every four years since 1995 using a standardised method and a common questionnaire. The seventh survey was undertaken in 35 European countries during 2019 and collected information on alcohol, tobacco, and other substance use among 15–16-year-old students.

An important goal of the ESPAD survey is to monitor trends in alcohol consumption, tobacco, and other drug use among 15–16-year-olds and to compare trends between countries and groups of countries. It also provides an opportunity to observe changes in Irish trends over the six waves of the past 20 years. The rationale for the ESPAD surveys is that school students are easily accessible and at an age when the onset of substance use is likely to occur. 

This article concentrates on findings from the survey conducted in Ireland in 2019, in which 3,565 questionnaires were completed by young people from 50 randomly selected post-primary schools.1 Of these participants, 1,967 were born in 2003 and will be included in the international ESPAD dataset.

Alcohol use

Respondents were asked on how many occasions in their lifetime had they used alcohol. Over one-quarter (27.4%) answered that they had never consumed an alcoholic beverage in their lifetime. Overall, 72.6% of students had drunk alcohol in their lifetime, with 17.6% having tried alcohol once or twice. Seventeen per cent had drunk alcohol on more than 20 occasions. Although the percentage of students who indicated lifetime use of alcohol was similar according to gender (72.7% males vs 72.4% females), male students were more likely to have tried alcohol 40 times or more (11.7%) than females (7.1%).

Almost one-half (40.8%) of students had drunk alcohol in the last 30 days and were considered to be current drinkers. Almost one-quarter (23.4%) reported drinking alcohol once or twice in the past 30 days, while only a small proportion of respondents had used alcohol 10 times or more (3.7%). More male (42.1%) than female (39.5%) students indicated current alcohol use. Although the findings suggest an increase in current alcohol use among students since 2015, overall, current alcohol use among students in Ireland has declined (see Table 1), with a 44% reduction over the past 16 years.

Respondents were asked if they had been drunk in the last 30 days. Sixteen per cent of students reported being drunk, while 12.8% reported being drunk more than once or twice during the past month. More females (17.1%) than males (15.1%) reported being drunk in the last month.

Cider (28.5%), beer (27.3%), and spirits (27.1%) were the most common types of alcohol consumed in the month prior to the survey. The least popular drinks were wine (8.3%) and alcopops (14.2%). Respondents were asked how difficult they thought it would be to obtain specific alcoholic beverages, with response categories ranging from ‘impossible’ to ‘very easy’. A majority of students believed that it would be ‘very easy’ or ‘fairly easy’ to obtain all beverage types examined; 67.7% gave this answer for cider and 71.1% for beer. Only 8.5% believed it would be impossible to obtain spirits compared with 58.8% who said it would be ‘fairly easy’ or ‘very easy’ to access.

Table 1: Alcohol use in the last 30 days among 15–16-year-olds in Ireland, ESPAD surveys 2003–2019

Smoking

Participants were asked on how many occasions had they smoked cigarettes during their lifetime. More than two-thirds (68.4%) of students reported that they had never smoked a cigarette and a further 11% had only smoked on one or two occasions. Just 7.2% of all students reported smoking on at least 40 occasions. Overall, almost one-third had ever smoked in their lifetime (31.6%).

When students were asked to consider how often they had smoked in the last 30 days, 85.6% reported that they had not smoked at all, while 14.4% had smoked at least once. Seven per cent of students reported smoking less than one cigarette per week and a further 1.9% smoked less than one cigarette per day. Only 11 students reported smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day. There were significant differences in current smoking between male and female students, as more male students had reported smoking in the last 30 days (16.2%) than had female students (12.8%).

Trends over time suggest that current smoking among school-aged children in Ireland has stabilised and is greatly reduced since 2003, representing a 58% reduction (see Table 2).

When students were asked how difficult they thought it would be to access cigarettes, over one-third (38.2%) responded that it would be ‘fairly easy’, while another 23.2% thought it would be ‘very easy’ to obtain a cigarette. Only 5.5% responded that it would be ‘impossible’. Most students believed that there is a moderate risk (34%) or a slight risk (27.4%) of smoking occasionally, while 22.7% answered that they perceived a great risk from smoking one or more packs of cigarettes per day.

Table 2: Smoking in the last 30 days among 15–16-year-olds in Ireland, ESPAD surveys 2003–2019

Other substance use

Students were asked how many times in their lifetime had they used cannabis. Male students (23.8%) were more likely than females (14.7%) to have ever tried cannabis. Overall, 19.1% of students had ever tried cannabis, of which most had tried it once or twice. There was also a sizeable minority of students who had smoked cannabis 20 times or more (4.1%).

Overall, 15.8% of students had used cannabis in the last 12 months. Again, more male (20%) than female respondents (11.8%) reported using cannabis in the past year. Almost 3.8% and 2.4% of male and female students, respectively, reported using cannabis at least 20 times or more in the last year. Six per cent of males and 3.9% of females had first used cannabis at 12 years or younger. Almost one-half (49.3%) of students first tried cannabis at 15 years of age and 11.4% first tried it at 13 years. When respondents were asked how easy they thought it would be to obtain cannabis, 46.3% perceived that it would be ‘impossible’, ‘very difficult’ or ‘fairly difficult’, while 42.4% perceived that it would be ‘fairly easy’ or ‘very easy’.

Regarding lifetime use of other substances, after tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis, inhalants were the most commonly used substance at 10%. The next most regularly used drugs were painkillers ‘to get high’ (5.4%), followed by cocaine, ecstasy, tranquilisers, magic mushrooms and LSD (3%) (see Table 3).

Trend analysis demonstrates that lifetime prevalence of cannabis use has remained relatively unchanged at approximately 20% since 2007 among 15–16-year-olds in Ireland (see Table 3). There has been a decrease in the use of illicit drugs other than cannabis by 29%, decreasing from 7% in 2015 to 5% in 2019. Overall, there has been a 69% reduction in the use of illicit drugs since 1995.

Table 3: Lifetime use of drugs among 15–16-year-olds in Ireland, ESPAD surveys 2003–2019

Conclusion

In summary, results from the ESPAD 2019 survey suggest a slight increase in the use of alcohol, while the use of cigarettes among school-aged children in the Republic of Ireland has stabilised. The use of cannabis, inhalants, and other illicit substances may also have stabilised. Nevertheless, it should be noted that early school-leavers, a group known to be vulnerable to alcohol and drug use, are not represented in this survey. Consequently, the results may not indicate the true extent of alcohol and other illicit substance use among all 15–16-year-old children in Ireland.
 

1   Sunday S, Keogan S, Hanafin J and Clancy L (2020) European Schools Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs: ESPAD 2019 Ireland. Dublin: TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland and Department of Health. https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/33347/