Victorian Secondary school students and drug use in 1996. Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer. Anti cancer council of Victoria. Youth is a time of experimentation and taking risks. Alcohol use for example, is perceived this way.
Young people s thinking on illicit drugs tends to change with time and age.
Cited on page 94 of Drugs and Our Community. Report of the Premier's Advisory Council, March 1996. It should be emphasised that most young people's drug use is either experimental or recreational, that is, the 'stages' described do not imply a natural progression of use. These 'stages' do however give us some indication of what young people think about drugs and what changes in attitudes may occur at different stages in a young person s life. They also help us develop a general framework of possible trends in actual use.