More education on the risks of taking cannabis has to be directed at young teenagers, campaigners have said after a report highlighted more young people are taking the drug.
Petra Maxwell, spokeswoman for charity DrugScope, said a lot of drug education literature was targeted at young people aged 15 and above, but the "critical time" for good education started at a younger age.
The report, from the Schools Health Education Unit, measured the habits of a total of almost 370,000 young people, aged 10 to 15, from 1987 to 2004.
In 2002, more than half of older pupils reported being offered drugs, compared to just over one in 10 in 1998, but drug taking in the last 10 years was generally down. The Drug Education Forum said these findings showed young people were "both willing and able to refuse unwelcome offers of drugs".
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