INCREASED DRUG USE: Young people under 26 report having used more illegal drugs in recent years, show new figures presented by FHI
Senior researcher Anne Line Bretteville Jensen at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health says they are seeing increased drug use among young people under 30. Photo: Jørn Tveter / NRK
I think that young people only reflect the cocaine use that is seen elsewhere in society.
This is according to senior researcher Anne Line Bretteville Jensen at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health is now presenting new figures on drug use in Norway.
The figures show, among other things, that cocaine use among Norwegians aged 16 to 30 has increased over the past ten years, and especially over the past four years.
The figures show an increase both among those who say they have used cocaine in the past 30 days, and those who say they have used the drug in the past 12 months.
In 2020, 2.5 percent said they had used cocaine in the past year. This year, 5.2 percent in this age group say the same.
All drug use has increased in certain age groups in recent years, the figures show.
The proportion of those who used cocaine or ecstasy/MDMA in the past year, in the age group 16 to 30 years. Source: Norwegian Institute of Public Health
You see increased cocaine use in all age groups, really. And among different types of users. We have not seen such high numbers before, says Jensen.
She points out that it is still the case that the vast majority of young people do not use cocaine.
Jensen believes that cocaine addiction has many negative consequences, regardless of age.
Cocaine has some risks associated with it. This applies both to the fact that people do some stupid things when they are intoxicated with cocaine, but also that it increases the risk of violence, and that cocaine is an addictive drug.
Cannabis is the most used illegal drug in Norway.
In 2024, 30 percent stated that they had tried cannabis during their lives, while almost 7 percent stated that they had used cannabis during the last 12 months.
This is an increase of about 2 percentage points compared to the years 2013-2023.
Cannabis use among young adults was relatively stable for a long time, but has increased somewhat in the period 2022-2024 compared to 2013-2021.
Men use cannabis to a greater extent than women and the gender gap has widened in 2024.
The use of cocaine among young adults has increased by approximately 2 percentage points in the period 2022-2024 compared to the years 2013-2021.
The use of ecstasy, amphetamine and LSD has also increased in 2024 compared to previous years
3 percent reported use of "new psychoactive substances" (NPS) in 2024. Use is not higher than in the previous year.
Cannabis is the most widely used illegal drug in Norway, according to FHI. Cannabis is a generic term for hashish and marijuana.
Use has increased particularly in recent years, and it is young men aged 16 to 26 who are particularly responsible for the increase.
– We see that the increase mainly applies to men. Women have had a more stable development, while the increase has mainly occurred among young men, says Jensen.
17 percent in this age group state that they have used cannabis in the last 30 days or during the last 12 months. This is an increase of 6 percentage points in the last two years.
The figures from FHI and Statistics Norway show that this year the highest use of cannabis has been measured for people under 26 years of age since 2013.
According to Jensen, the risk of lasting problems is greater the younger the users are. Jensen says researchers see a number of harmful effects among users, such as health damage and social harm.
Young people who use cannabis relatively rarely also report unpleasant or negative consequences relatively often, according to Jensen.
– Several studies indicate that cannabis use is associated with a risk of dropping out of school. We are conducting studies where we investigate this further.
– Low threshold
The students we meet at Blindern in Oslo say they see a lot of drugs at parties.
One of them is Jakob, who claims that he knows many people who use cannabis.
– Some do it at parties, while others do it more to relax together. There are many uses. My impression is that in many environments there is a very low threshold for it.
Anne Scharling is from Denmark and thinks she sees more cannabis use here than back home in Denmark.
– In Denmark, you can easily go a day in the summer without smelling hash. You can’t do that in Oslo.
Her friend Anna Ringstad also sees cannabis at parties and thinks it’s part of a youth rebellion.
– It’s new and cool and pushing the boundaries. You want to be a kind of rebel, I can imagine.
Photo: Anna Ringstad and Anne Scharling
Also, specialist in drug and addiction psychology and researcher Eline Borger Rognli at Oslo University Hospital says that using cannabis can have major consequences for young people’s lives.
– You lose control over your use and use more and more, and the use can affect other aspects of your life, such as social relationships, education, school and leisure activities.
Photo: Eline Borger Rognli / Oslo universitetssykehus
She also points out that men's brains develop until they are 25 years old.
Here there is also a certain individual vulnerability that one brings with them. Some people are more likely to become addicted than others.
According to Rognli, cannabis use can trigger psychosis.
In Denmark, cannabis use is far higher than in Norway, says Rognli. She points out that there are also more cannabis-induced psychoses in Denmark. According to Rognli, drug-induced psychosis is also three times as common in men as among women.
The most serious psychosis is schizophrenia - about 1 percent of the population is at risk of this, because they use cannabis, says the researcher.
The younger you are, the more vulnerable you are. And again, here we have good support from research literature, where we see that the younger you are when you start using cannabis, the higher the risk of experiencing a number of negative consequences. Including psychosis.
Four years ago, the Norwegian Directorate of Health started an attitude campaign to reduce cannabis use among young people.
The campaign was launched in 2020 and, according to the Norwegian Directorate of Health, aimed to provide more information to young people about the health risks of using cannabis and to increase knowledge about the drug.
Øyvind Gievær, Norwegian Directorate of Health. Department Director at the Ministry of Health Øyvind Giæver believes that they must inform and work long-term with substance use among young people. Photo: Dragana Njegic / Norwegian Directorate of Health
Department Director at the Ministry of Health Øyvind Giæver says they will look more closely at the new figures before drawing conclusions, but will not agree that the campaign among young people has been a failure.
It is perhaps more of a knowledge campaign than an attitude campaign. We try not to be such a “pointing finger campaign”. The relationship between knowledge and action is complicated. It is very rare that we see such an immediate effect on behavior from campaigns of this type.
But now that campaign has been going on for four years, is it possible that you should have been a little more “pointing finger”, or said a little more about the danger of influencing the situation?
– That is what has been tried in both Norway and most other countries over many years. And it has not had such a great effect, either. So this campaign is built on what young people themselves want.
Anna, whom we meet on the streets of Oslo, has realized that cannabis can be dangerous.
– Yes, I think the long-term effect of it is not good. There is something about the consequences of it for the brain and how it affects your thought patterns and efficiency and productivity and all that.
Source: NRK
Also read the publication:
Historical Defeat of Government Parties in Icelandic Elections
