The Kids Are All Right

‘THERE are few things more geared to cause the older generation to fret and the younger ones to laugh out loud than a survey into yoof culture.

‘And I inhaled…’

But happy to look utterly out of touch, the Government that gave us Cool Britannia and a Prime Minster who thinks he’s Hank Marvin has conducted a survey.

And it’s found that a fifth of all teenagers have pretended to take drugs to make themselves look cool, but have not really ever tried any.

News in the Times is that teenagers are more interested in looking clued-up about drugs and being able to ‘talk the talk’ than actually using them to get stoned.

Teens, it seems, are not a bit unlike the Government, which bangs on about illegal drugs but hasn’t really got the first idea how to deal with them.

And in a single stroke, the Government’s official figure of the numbers of teens taking drugs has dropped by a fifth.

But before we get another survey that discovers how a further third of confirmed teen wasters confused banned drugs with legal narcotics like Prozac, Valium and alcohol, we hear the sensational news that surveys are not always accurate.

It seems that when asked if they take drugs or not, teenagers are prone to lie. It’s shocking but it is true.

So this study, sponsored by Frank, the Home Office’s national drugs information service, didn’t ask yoofs what they themselves took but what they think their friends took.

And the story goes that a fifth of 1,000 11 to 19-year-olds,who weren’t too pissed or gouched to answer said they thought their friends had pretended to take drugs as ‘an act of bravado when they had not done so’.

However, the respondents themselves are universally cool and have taken any number of Es, trips and whiz to make your head spin for weeks…’

Posted: 23rd, August 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink