The Netherlands Drug Situation 2010 - Trimbos-instituut

Cannabis and age (of onset)Figure 2.2.2 shows that cannabis use strongly increases with age. At age 12 only few pupils have ever used cannabis: one in fifty (2.3%). At age 16,one in three pupils had ever tried cannabis (30%). The right panel of figure 2.2.2 shows that the percentage of current cannabis usersincreases until age 15 among girls and remains around 10% thereafter, while amongboys a further sharp increase is observed in the higher age groups. The percentage of very young pupils (≤14 years) having ever tried cannabis decreasedbetween 2003 and 2007 (trend significant for total and for boys separately).For example, LTP among 14-year old boys was 21% in 2003 against 13% in 2007.Figure 2.2.2: Lifetime and last month prevalence (%) of cannabis use among pupils bygender and age in 2007Lifetime prevalence (%)Last month prevalence (%)606050504040303020201010012 year 13 year 14 year 15 year 16 year 17-18 year012 year 13 year 14 year 15 year 16 year 17-18 yearboys 3.1 5.5 12.6 24.3 33.7 51.6boys 1.2 2.4 6.5 13.5 15.3 28.2girls 1.6 4.2 12.3 19.4 26.7 30.5girls 0 2 6.2 9.8 11.6 9.5Source: Dutch National School Survey, Trimbos Institute (Monshouwer et al. 2008).Frequency of cannabis useMost pupils consume cannabis infrequently. Over half (55%) of the current cannabis users used cannabis on only one or two occasionsin the past month (62% among girls, 46% among boys). Fourteen percentused cannabis on more than 10 occasions in the past month, more boys than girls(18% and 7%, respectively). Half of the current users (46% among boys, 57% among girls) smoked less than onejoint per occasion, probably indicating that they shared a joint. Eighteen percent ofthe boys and 11 percent of the girls who were a current cannabis user smoked 3 ormore joints per occasion.Use of other drugs In general, the 2007 survey showed that prevalence rates of use of ecstasy, cocaine,amphetamine, hallucinogenic mushrooms and heroin were much lower compared tocannabis, with lifetime rates around 2%, while only 0.8% of the pupils had ever triedheroin. Last month prevalence rates are for all drugs below 1%. As for cannabis, the use of other drugs generally peaked in 1996 and decreased orstabilised since then. Ecstasy remains the most popular ‘party’ drug throughout the35