This paper explores the ways in which pre-teenage children try to avoid coming into contact with illegal drugs and then examines the factors and circumstances that facilitate or impede their efforts to achieve this. Their main strategy of avoiding certain groups or individuals was complicated by the fluid nature of young people's social groups and…

There is mounting evidence that the age at which children are using and becoming exposed to illegal drugs is declining and that such use and exposure is becoming an increasing problem within pre-teenage populations. This suggests that there is an important role for drug education in primary schools in encouraging and helping young children to…

In this paper we report the results of research on the nature and extent of legal and illegal drug use among preteens and those factors associated with illegal drug use at this young age. The paper is based upon a survey of 2318 ten to twelve year olds in Glasgow and Newcastle. Overall around 30% of children reported having been exposed to illegal…