The youngest age stated by a respondent, when asked when they started to use cannabis, was 11, but 76.6% of users stated starting ages below 24, according to the Romanian National Report on Drug Consumption, presented Thursday in Bucharest.
Romanian Police Issues National Drug Consumption Report
According to the report, for ecstasy the lowest starting age was 14, while the highest was 30.
As for the prevalence of illegal drug use during a lifetime, the most used drug is cannabis (1.5%), followed by ecstasy (0.4%), heroin (0.1%), hallucinogens (0.1%) and cocaine (0.1%).
In the past 12 months, the prevalence of cannabis consumption on a national level was 0.4% and for ecstasy – 0.1%, while in the past 30 days the prevalence of cannabis consumption was 0.1%.
Among 16 year olds, 14.5% used one or several illegal drugs in 2007. Compared to 2003, increases have been registered in the use of all types of illegal drugs except tranquilizers/sedatives (a decrease from 6.6% to 4.1%). In the past 12 months cannabis consumption reached 1.9% while in the past 30 days the values registered were below 1.5%, which spells an increase compared to 2003, according to the report.
In 66% of cases the main drug for which treatment was requested in 2007 remained heroin - 13%, followed by hypnotic or sedative medicine – 11.5%, other substances – 4.6%, cannabis – 1.7%, methadone and other opiates – 1.36%, volatile inhalants, incentives – 1.36%, cocaine – 0.4%, hallucinogens – 0.07%.
Rehab admissions revealed that the age group with the highest amount of drug users is the 25-29 years group, which includes 30% of all users, followed by the 20-24 years category where 27% of consumers are included.
For 35% of drug users the starting age was between 15-19 years, while for 26% started using between the ages of 20 and 24.
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