Labour and Democratic Left have called for changes in education programmes on drugs for young people, after a survey showed that Irish students take more drugs than the EU average.
The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs, the results of which were published in yesterday's Irish Times, showed Irish students drink more, get drunk more and smoke more than the typical European student.
It also showed that 37 per cent of 16-year-old Irish students had used cannabis at some stage.
Labour's health spokesman, Mr Derek McDowell, said yesterday that the results "highlight the need for a professional youth service through which young people at risk of becoming drug-abusers can be identified at an early stage".
He said drugs education programmes should explain specifically the harm done by each drug.
"It's not sufficient to tell children that all drugs are equally harmful," he said. The legal availability of drugs could also be seen by young people as conferring legitimacy on them, he said. "The drug that kills most people, tobacco, is legal," Democratic Left's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, said the results were alarming.
"What is most alarming is that this is a survey of those who are still legally children, under the legal age for the purchase of alcohol and just barely at the age when cigarettes can be legally bought," she said.
"The extent of the use of tobacco and alcohol among the 16-yearolds is extremely serious, and the level of use of illegal drugs is frightening."
She called for a review of programmes for teenagers geared towards the prevention of drug abuse, and said such programmes should be aimed at younger children as well.