Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS): national overview 2018

Attitudes To Substance Use

The proportion of pupils who think it is ‘ok’ to try drinking (from 73% to 79%) or getting drunk (from 38% to 49%) has shown a marked increase between 2015 and 2018. There has also been a small increase in the proportion who think it is ‘ok’ to try smoking (from 42% to 45%).

By some margin, pupils are more likely to think that it is ‘ok’ to try drinking than to try getting drunk, smoking or taking drugs.

Figure 16: Proportion of 15 year old pupils who thought it was ‘ok’ for someone their age to try… (2006-2018)

Although it was much less common for pupils to say that it was ‘ok’ for someone their age to try drugs, there has been an increase since 2015 in the proportion of 15 year olds who think it is ‘ok’ to try all drugs asked about, but particularly in relation to taking cannabis (from 18% to 33%). 

Figure 17: Proportion of 15 year old pupils who thought it was ‘ok’ for someone their age to try… (2006-2018)

Girls were more likely than boys to think it was ‘ok’ to try smoking a cigarette, drinking alcohol, getting drunk and sniffing glue, whereas boys were more likely to think that it was ‘ok’ to try taking cannabis and taking cocaine.