Drug prevention programmes and policies, youth's risk perception and drug use: a comparative analysis of 27 EU member states

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: There has been a global increase in the use of illicit drugs in the last decades, especially among adolescents and young adults. To curb this, prevention programmes and penalties are often employed. However, estimates of effectiveness rarely take into account the combined effect of penalties and drug prevention programmes. Aim: To assess if severity of drug penalties and comprehensiveness of drug prevention programs is associated with youths' risk perception of cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy regular use, and use of cannabis in 27 European member states. Methods: We performed an ecological study using data collected in 2011 and 2014 in 27 European countries by the flash Eurobarometer survey (waves 330 and 401 waves). We analysed the associations between the comprehensiveness of drug prevention programs and severity of drug penalties and youths' risk perception of regular use of cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy regular, and use of cannabis using graphical representations and linear regression models, estimating regression coefficients unadjusted and adjusted for demographic factors, with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). Results: Our results revealed a significant relationship between proportions of low risk perception of cannabis regular use and prevalence of cannabis use [=0.280, 95%CI=(0.026 to 0.533)], proportions of perceived easy access to cannabis and prevalence of cannabis use [=0.158 95%CI=(0.073 to 0.243)] even after adjusting for all other variables. Increasing comprehensiveness of drug prevention programmes was associated with higher proportions of perceived low risk of cocaine regular use after adjusting for demographics, contextual factors and year, but this lost significance after further adjustment. In 2014, increasing severity of penalties was associated with higher proportions of perceived low risk of ecstasy regular use, and samples with higher proportions of participants within the ages of 15-18 years were linked to higher risk of cannabis use, but these associations lost significance after adjusting for other variables. Conclusion: Neither comprehensiveness of drug prevention programs nor severity of penalties were associated with risk perceptions or cannabis use rates. Prevalence of cannabis use was associated with higher proportions of low risk perception and ease of access to cannabis. Therefore, it is important for countries to evaluate and, possibly, rethink their prevention programmes and policies for higher effectiveness. The focus of drug policies should change from designing severe penalties for drug use to implementation efforts, targeting at reducing illicit drug supply, access and, consequently, perceived ease of access to drugs. Keywords: illicit drugs, youths, policies, penalties, prevention programmes, risk perceptions, drug use.