Ecstasy use soars among young people

Ecstasy use has soared among young people in the past year Credit: Paul Faith / PA Archive/PA Images

The proportion of young Britons taking ecstasy has soared to the highest level for more than a decade, official figures have shown.

One in 20 people aged between 16 and 24 admitted taking the Class A drug in the last year – while the number of young people using LSD also rose – according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).

However, the proportion of young adults admitting taking drugs in the previous 12 months has plunged sharply over the last decade.

Drugs campaigners say that the rise in ecstasy use shows the government’s hard-line drugs strategy – of criminalising their possession and use – is failing.

Edward Fox, from the drugs charity Release, said: “Given that there has been this rise in use of ecstasy among young people – by the government’s own statistics – it shows that their strategy of criminalising the possession and use of drugs is failing.

“It will continue to fail while the government continues to treat drug use as a criminal justice issue and not a health one.”

But the government said that the “long-term downward trend” in users showed their approach is working.

Mike Penning, the policing minister, said: "The UK's approach on drugs remains clear: we must prevent drug use in our communities, help dependent individuals recover, while ensuring our drugs laws are enforced.

"There are positive signs our approach to drugs is working as there has been a long-term downward trend in drug use over the last decade."

The figure for ecstasy use among 16-24-year olds this year - 5.4% - is the highest since 2003/04 - and is up just over a third compared with 2013/14. That amounts to an extra 95,000 young people taking ecstasy.

Increasing purity levels may have led to the rise in ecstasy’s popularity, Prof Fiona Measham of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs told the Guardian.

The proportion of 16-24s who have used LSD in the past year also rose, to just under one in 50.

The government has announced a crackdown on legal highs such as nitrous oxide Credit: PA

Researchers found that the use of so-called 'legal highs' is "generally low" compared with established substances such as cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy – around 279,000 people of people aged 16-59, or 0.9%.

The government has recently announced a crackdown on legal highs, or 'psychoactive substances' such as nitrous oxide.

Just under three million adults – about one in 12 - under 60 had taken drugs in the past year, the survey found.