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The research aimed to identify ‘(1) current volatile solvent use practices, (2) health beliefs and perceived effects of volatile solvent use, (3) social dynamics of volatile solvent use, (4) significance of reputation, and (5) barriers to volatile solvent use intervention’ in a sample of Irish adolescents (Carroll et al, 1998, p1; Anderson & Loomis, 2003). Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 20 adolescents who reported inhaling volatile solvents, during the course of doctoral research (n=1,400) investigating substance misuse among adolescents aged 12 to 18 years in Ireland. Their average age was 13.2 years, and they used a range of substances. Solvent users were found to be most commonly congregated in small peer and sibling groups and one young male also reported using alone. These young people indicated their average age of initiation of inhalant use as 10.3 years and most did not use inhalants after the age of 13 years. This coincided with first‐time alcohol use, at an average age of 12.5 years and experimental use of cannabis in some. All reported some awareness of short‐term medical risks involved in solvent use, and most commented on negative effects, such as headaches, dizziness and vomiting. Teachers, probation and juvenile liaison officers, health promotion and drug education workers, youth workers, social workers, and parents should ‘familiarise themselves with the real world experiences of adolescent volatile solvent users’; in order to develop appropriate and timely drug education interventions (Carroll et al, 1998 p6).

Using data from the U.S. National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this chapter investigates the impact of individual drug use on robbery, burglary, theft, and damaging property for juveniles. Using a variety of fixed-effects models that exploit variations over time and between siblings and twins, the results indicate that drug use has a significant impact on the propensity to commit crime. We find that the median impact of cocaine use on the propensity to commit various types of crimes is 11 percentage points. The impact of using inhalants or other drugs is an increase in the propensity to commit crime by 7 percentage points, respectively.

All Stars Core is a school‐based drug abuse prevention program for 11 to 14 year olds from the United States. It focuses on five qualities that protect children from drug use: viewing drug use as uncommon and unacceptable to the peer group (norms); viewing drug use as interfering with future goals; commitment to avoid drug use; positive attention from parents; and feeling accepted at school. All Star Plus was recently developed with the goal of expanding the Core program to include the development of three competencies: goal setting, decision making, and skills to resist peer pressure resistance. Students either received All Stars Core, All Stars Plus, or were assigned to the non‐treated control group. Both programs outperformed the control group; however, All Stars Plus was more effective in preventing drug use than All Stars Core. All Stars Plus was found to reduce alcohol use, drunkenness, cigarette smoking, marijuana use, and inhalant use. The Plus program appeared to have achieved these outcomes by improving norms, increasing persistence in pursuing goals, and by increasing attention from parents.

The opioid epidemic in the USA, the new psychoactive substances emerging on the market and the recent increase in cocaine treatment demands in Western Europe, all emphasise the importance of monitoring the use and harms of drugs over time. To be informed about new consumption patterns, this study aims to study the trends among people entering treatment for substance use in Belgium.

Belgian data from the Treatment Demand Indicator collected between 2015 and 2019 were used. A reference group of treatment units was selected to allow for comparisons between the different years. Trend analysis was performed by using a joinpoint regression among different regions and groups of clients.

The drugs of choice that were most frequently mentioned among the 23,000 analysed treatment episodes were alcohol and cannabis. Both remained relatively stable over time. Heroin seemed to be decreasing significantly at the national level, but increased in Brussels. Benzodiazepines decreased significantly in Flanders and Brussels, but not in Wallonia. On the other hand, reports of crack cocaine increased significantly in the three regions with a more pronounced trend in Wallonia and Brussels. Substances such as fentanyl, methamphetamine, ketamine or volatile inhalants have been mentioned significantly more by people entering treatment in 2019, although their contribution to the total number is still limited.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to evaluate trends for all drugs of choice at a national and regional level. These results might not only benefit national policymakers but also other countries with similar alcohol or drug use patterns.

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) use for recreational purposes appears to have increased among young people in several countries, including Denmark, Australia, The Netherlands and the UK. This increase has prompted concern among health authorities and politicians. The purpose of this paper is to map out findings in the available literature about N₂O use among young people to better understand current trends and contextualize the public concerns and the new policy responses to it.

The authors draw here on a range of sources, including research literature, reports and policy documents in English and Danish. Given the broad aim, the authors used a scoping study approach (Arksey and O’Malley, 2005).

The authors found literature on prevalence of use, health effects and policy regulations. The literature suggests that health harms associated with N₂O use are generally associated with intensive and long-term use, and death is more likely where the means of administration entails a risk of suffocation. Overall, however, the analysis shows that substantial gaps exist in the available literature. The authors lack detailed knowledge on several issues, including comparable prevalence data of N₂O use; the extent to which N₂O is used with other drugs; how one can distinguish between harmful and non-harmful use in terms of both quantity inhaled and mode of administration; and on intended and unintended consequences of policy responses to this use.

The current increase and trend in inhaling N₂O for intoxication among young people is under researched. This general review maps out what kind of knowledge would be valuable to have for prevention, harm reduction and policy interventions.

Alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drugs use typically increases in prevalence and frequency during middle and late adolescence. School health instruction often focusses on providing facts and rarely provides tools for addressing the psychosocial risk factors needed to prevent substance use. The purpose of this paper is to report about the effectiveness of a prevention programme delivered in US high school health classes. The intervention augments typical instruction by providing teachers with activities that can be infused in their daily teaching.

In total, 26 schools were randomly assigned to receive the intervention or serve as controls. Pupils were pretested near the beginning of the school year, posttest near the end of the school year and administered a final test near the beginning of the following school year. Teachers in treatment schools were provided with activities designed to target psychosocial variables known to mediate substance use onset and self-initiated cessation. These include normative beliefs, intentionality, lifestyle incongruence, beliefs about consequences of use, peer pressure resistance skills, decision-making skills, goal setting skills and stress management skills.

Hierarchical modelling analytic strategies revealed the intervention to have definable positive impacts on alcohol and cigarette use. Moreover, the intervention had strongest effects on alcohol and cigarette use among pupils who were identified at pretest as being lower-than-average risk.

This research provides support for providing teachers with a strategy for preventing alcohol, tobacco and other drugs that can be used in a flexible manner to augment the instruction they are already mandated to provide.

Presents information on the Drug abuse resistance education (DARE) program, a set of 17 lessons on drug resistance given by police officers to sixth grade children. Measures attitudes toward drug use and degree of reported use. Indicates that DARE is successful in providing information but that the levels of reported behavior do not show significant improvement in self‐reported drug use compared to two control groups. Urges caution in expanding the program, since positive results are limited at present.