Drug Use Among Vulnerable Groups of Young People: comments

Abstract

The publication of a special issue on drug use among vulnerable groups of young people is timely. As stated in the 1998 EMCDDA Annual Report on the State of the Drugs Problem in the European Union, many European countries are revising their prevention policies and increasingly applying a two-pronged strategy: ® rst, continuing the health promotion approach, aimed at strengthening life skills and decision-making and targeted on the general youth population, and second, designing prevention programmes targeted at young people considered particularly at risk. I would argue there is a need for both these approaches. The acceptance of the need for work with those particularly vulnerable groups does not imply that broad-based prevention activity is not required. The pessimistic view expressed that health promotion approaches have yielded disappointing results appears over-stated. This is a dif® cult area to research and our knowledge base remains very much in its infancy. However, studies have produced some encouraging results, for example, in the postponement of drug use. There is also a pressing