This article reported the findings of a 1980/81 survey of post-primary schools in Dublin city and county, regarding drug abuse.

The aims of the survey were to study the consumption of cigarettes, alcohol and drugs by a group of second-level school attenders, and to explore the changes in the use of these substances over the previous decade. The study was intended as a follow-up to similar research carried out in 1970/71. Ultimately, a total of 5,178 self-administered, confidential questionnaires were considered suitable for analysis.

To maintain comparability, the three questions on drugs used in the 1970/71 survey were used again in the present research. In general terms, the results of the survey showed increased contact with drugs since the survey carried out a decade earlier. The use of drugs by schoolchildren had also increased.