SUBSTANCE USE

Smoking

Over one third of young people (35%) have smoked regularly. Over half of those aged 17 years (58%) have smoked regularly.

Young people not attending school were over one and a half times more likely to have smoked than young people still in school.

Young people who have at least one parent who smokes were almost twice as likely to have smoked cigarettes regularly compared with young people whose parents do not smoke.

PROPORTION OF YOUNG PEOPLE WHO HAVE SMOKED, BY AGE AND SEX

Alcohol

Just over one quarter of young people (27%) drink alcohol. At 17 years of age, 61% of males and 43% of females were drinking alcohol.

In areas of extreme isolation only 8% of young people drink alcohol compared with 31% of young people living in the Perth metropolitan area.

Almost one in five young people (19%) had been in a car with a drunk driver in the six months prior to the survey.

PROPORTION OF YOUNG PEOPLE WHO DRINK ALCOHOL BY LEVEL OF RELATIVE ISOLATION

Marijuana

One in three (30%) young people have used marijuana at some time in their lives. Some 45% of 17 year-old males used marijuana at least weekly, compared with 21% of 17 year-old females.

Three quarters of young people (75%) who drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes regularly also use marijuana, compared with only 8% who neither drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes.

PROPORTION OF YOUNG PEOPLE WHO USE MARIJUANA, BY WHETHER THEY ALSO SMOKE CIGARETTES REGULARLY OR DRINK ALCOHOL