Teenagers today are better behaved with drink and drugs

RELAX parents - it’s increasingly unlikely your teens are smoking, drinking and taking drugs.

Two-fifths (44%) of secondary pupils across England have never smoked, drunk alcohol or taken drugs, according NHS figures.

The proportion of children who are saying “no” has soared from a third (34%) in 2005.

And the number continues to rise, having stood at 43% in 2016.

The data, published by NHS Digital, comes from a to new survey run every two years. The latest survey covers 2018.

It found four in five (80%) of those in Years 7 to 11 had not smoked or drunk in the previous week or taken drugs in the previous month.

However, there are variations across the country.

In the East Midlands, 47% of those in Years 7 to 11 had tried alcohol at least once, up from 46% in 2016.

The proportion who had drunk alcohol in the last week was up from 11% to 12%.

This compares to 44% across England as a whole who had ever tried alcohol, and one in 10 (10%) who had drunk the previous week. Both those figures were unchanged from 2016.

Nationally, beer and cider were the most common thing for children to drink. Some 76% of those who had drunk the previous week had drunk beer or cider, while 60% had drunk spirits.

Two-thirds of current child drinkers (66%) usually drink with their parents, more than with friends (44%).

Smoking is the behaviour seeing the fastest decline, and pupils in the

East Midlands are less likely than most to have tried cigarettes.

The proportion who have ever smoked in the region dropped from 18% in 2016 to 15% in 2018.

Just 5% of young people are current smokers, and regular smokers make up only 2% of the secondaryschool population.

Across England, 16% of pupils said they had ever tried smoking, the lowest proportion since records began in 1982.

That’s halved from 32% in 2008, and dropped from 47% in 1998.

Just 2% of those in Years 7 to 11 are regular smokers, with 3% saying they are occasional smokers.

Pupils are most likely to think people their age smoke to look cool to their friends (79%) but that has dropped from 84% in 2012.

They increasingly believe young people smoke because they are addicted, because they live with others who smoke, and because it helps them cope with stress.

The East Midlands is also seeing a drop in the proportion of pupils who take drugs, and those in the region are less likely than average to have tried drugs.

Just over a fifth of pupils in the region (22%) had ever taken drugs, down from 24% in 2016. Just 9% had taken drugs in the previous month, down from 10% in 2016.

Across England, a quarter of pupils (24%) reported they had ever taken drugs, similar to in 2016, and the percentage who had taken drugs in the past month was down from 10% to 9%.

Pupils were most likely to have taken cannabis, followed by glue, gases or aerosols, nitrous oxide, and new psychoactive substances (previously known as “legal highs”).