Young people are often at the leading edge of social change, and upward trends in alcohol and illicit drug use by them constitute an important social development in the EU. Young people now have access to an increasingly wide range of substances and are using them in combination with alcohol. New and changing patterns of psychoactive substance-use present a particular challenge for policymakers to develop an appropriately wide and timely range of responses for effective action.

The majority of young people in the EU have never used illicit drugs but, among those who have, cannabis is the most frequently used drug. In general, the likelihood of young people getting drunk or being offered cannabis, or other illicit drugs, as well as their willingness to try drugs, increases sharply with age. ‘Curiosity’ is usually given as the main reason for trying drugs. On the whole, males generally use more drugs and alcohol than females but the gap is narrowing for binge alcohol consumption.