Youths choose drugs before alcohol

Stockholm | 2011-05-28

Cannabis is more popular than alcohol among young people in Stockholm. New figures from the Maria Ungdom youth clinic shows that for the first time do a majority of young people prefer to smoke cannabis as their main choice of intoxication.

51 per cent of those who were admitted to the clinic last year reported that cannabis is their main drug. 7 per cent said alcohol.
In 2009 the figures were the reverse, 54 per cent preferred alcohol and 43 per cent cannabis.
"We have seen a massive increase in cannabis. It's easy to get hold of. In almost every school here are groups in the seventh to eighth grade who smoke," says Anna Olsson, social worker in the city district of Södermalm, Stockholm, to newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
A survey conducted every other year among all who are in ninth grade and second year in upper secondary school also shows that drug use is increasing and consumption of alcohol decreases.
"An increasing number of young people smoke cannabis openly and regularly. We also see a general liberalization of attitudes towards drugs. We must break that trend," says Anna König Jerlmyr, City Commissioner for Social Issues.

David Jonasson

david.jonasson@stockholmnews.com