Prevalence Among Youth by Type of Drug, Scotland

"Cannabis was by far the most common drug – particularly among 15 year olds. Ten per cent of 15 year olds and 2% of 13 year olds reported that they had used cannabis in the last month. Very few pupils reported using any other drug.
"Due to increased awareness of ‘new’ substances and synthetic drugs, five drugs were added to the 2010 survey (mephedrone, BZP, ketamine, spice and ‘GBL or GBH’). All else being equal, we might expect this change to the questionnaire to increase prevalence rates (because in previous surveys not everyone would have included these drugs in the ‘other’ category). However, the results indicate that use of these drugs is not that common and, despite their inclusion, estimates of prevalence are stable among boys and decreasing among girls. This suggests that they are having little impact on overall levels of drug use."