Grammar school pupils ‘turning to drugs to deal with exam stress’

TEENAGERS are buying Xanax on social media to help them cope with exam stress, addiction experts have said.

Grammar school pupils are so stressed by their work that they are taking the drug – used to treat anxiety and panic disorders – “on a daily basis”, experts warned.

Drugs charity Addaction said children as young as 13 were buying it online, and a BBC investigation found drugs advertised on Instagram and Facebook. Journalists were able to buy products which the dealers said were Xanax and diazepam. Both Instagram and Facebook said that buying or selling drugs was not allowed, and the accounts had been removed.

Neil Coles, who works for Addaction with children in the South East, said he was increasingly working with gifted, able children using Xanax for self-medication. “There’s a lot of use in grammar schools, a lot in those high-pressure environments. It’s used as a party drug as well but I’m also seeing it used within the school environment – so children taking a quarter of a bar [tablet] to alleviate the stress of a school day,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

He said the children using it were often

‘There’s a lot of use in grammar schools, a lot in those high-pressure environments’

“outside of those traditional drugusing cohorts” who would use drugs recreationally. As well as social media, some would buy it on the dark web.

Coping with exam pressure was a particular driver behind demand for the drug, Mr Coles added.

“There is an awful lot of pressure on them to achieve,” he said.

“To fail at a GCSE level may well end what they see as their future.” A Home Office spokesman said: “Law enforcement agencies continue to work with internet providers to shut down Uk-based websites found to be committing offences and we expect social media companies to have robust processes in place to act promptly to remove content and user accounts that do not comply with their own polices.”

Previous figures have suggested that children feel under increased pressure to succeed at school, leading them to curtail their social lives and avoid using their time for paid work.

Last year a University of Manchester report found that suicide among young people rose in the period leading up to exams, and charities warned that young people needed more help with their well-being.

The NSPCC last year said it had seen an 11 per cent rise in counselling sessions for children struggling with stress because of school work and exams.