Teenagers who are involved in sports and other extracurricular activities are much less likely to use cocaine or ecstasy, a major new Irish study has found.
The findings show teenagers were about 50pc more likely to use cocaine and 54pc more likely to use ecstasy if they weren’t regularly involved in sport.
Research into the lifestyles of more than 5,000 Irish adolescents, aged 15 and 16, found 3.4pc of teenagers had used cocaine, while nearly 3pc had tried ecstasy.
“That’s the equivalent of one student in every class having used these by age 15 or 16. That’s a very high prevalence, and much higher than European norms,” said Dr Peter Barrett, one of the authors and a consultant in public health medicine in UCC.
Dr Barrett joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.