New substances — new patterns?

Designer drug and classic drug use patterns in Hungary based on a European school survey, the ESPAD

Abstract

Background: Over the last decade or more, we have seen a rise in the use of new psychoactive substances. An international survey, the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs has been measuring the prevalence of designer drug use among Class 9 and 10 school students since 2015. Although the most popular substance was cannabis again in 2019 and designer drug use ranked fifth, the actual level of designer drug use has most probably been higher than what the survey suggested. In our study, we investigate whether designer drug users show a different social pattern compared to classic drug users, which knowledge is key to increasing the effectiveness of the preventive intervention.
Methodology: The analysis has been performed on European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs 2019 data from Hungary. The survey has been done based on a nationally representative sample including full classes of high school students participating in full-time normal school education and a self-completion method was applied. In total, the sample size of Class 9 and 10 students is 5’766. In the analysis, we compare designer substance users with classic substance users, based on the users’ social background variables (family, school, mental health, health behavior, friends, and leisure).
Results: Our results partially support the findings of previous analyses, according to which designer drug users typically do not show a different pattern compared to other drug use, however, various characteristics of new psychoactive substances users differ from classic drug users. Our analysis suggests that in the case of designer drug use, indicators of family, school integration, mental health, and health behavior are similar to classic drug users. While designer substance use is widespread among friendless, quiet students with lower-middle-income and lower-educated parents, classic substance use is popular with students who enjoy companionship and have higher-educated parents and above-average financial status. Although growing up without biological parents and attending a vocational high school (and not a high school) are risk factors for both designer and classic drug users, compared to classic drug users these two factors seem to be associated with a higher risk in the case of new psychoactive substance users. As opposed to leisure time spent on the internet or social media platforms, leisure time spent with the family is an important factor that restrains youngsters from illicit drug use. In the case of new psychoactive substance use, the opposite trend can be observed, ie. it is the internet use and not the family time that protects young people from substance use.
Conclusions: Consistent in tune with previous analyses, designer drug users show a partially similar social pattern to classic drug users. Since both types of drug users come from high-risk groups, preventive interventions could be applied to tackle designer drug use too. However, to prevent new psychoactive substance use in the future, it would be worthwhile to pay special attention to high-risk groups, such as students of below-average financial status, students growing up without their biological parents, students with lower-educated parents, or students attending a vocational high school, as well as friendless, reserved youngsters without much social activity.