Policy & Practice: Numbers game - Drug prices

Harry Shapiro, editor of DrugScope's magazine Druglink, says: "What we have seen is that, over time, across the board, the price of drugs has fallen dramatically. The drug that young people are most likely to come across is herbal cannabis, but we are still at a point where most under-16s who are still in school won't have tried any drugs at all."

A cause for concern that has emerged from the report is the increasingly mainstream use of anabolic steroids among young people. Shapiro puts this down to today's obsession with body image.

"It's a problem usually associated with pictures of skinny teenage girls, but there is another side to it, where young men want to look like Premiership footballers without wanting to put the hard work in," he says. Users are reportedly as young as 15, are otherwise not a part of the drugs culture, and have little understanding of the dangers involved.