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All drugs are dangerous. The ones we get from are Doctors are prescribed to us to treat a medical condition and are done so under the supervision of a trained medical professional. Taking any sort of manufactured drugs other than on the advice of a Doctor simply means you are taking medication for a reason other than to treat a medical condition, and that is dangerous. While some people eat cough sweets when they haven't got a cough solely because they like the taste of them, or because it cuts down the amount of cigarettes they smoke, there is a world of difference between that and taking, say, un-prescribed painkillers.

The same is true of designer drugs, only perhaps more so. If you were offered a headache tablet that someone said they had made themselves using a recipe they found on the internet and, by the way, it does have drugs in it, you would probably turn the offer down and quite rightly so. Designer drugs like Ecstasy are often made by people with little or no training in chemistry, in unhygienic locations, using unsterile equipment and recipes from dubious sources.

While drug misuse amongst children is decreasing it still remains both a problem and a concern to parents. The following figures were released in 2008, and were collated in a national survey of pupils aged 11 to 15 years at secondary schools throughout the country.

• In 2007, 10% of pupils in England aged 11 to 15 reported taking drugs in the last month, a fall from 12% in 2001.
• Seventeen per cent of pupils reported taking drugs in the last year, a fall from 20% in 2001 and 25% reported never having taken drugs, a fall from 29% in 2001.
• Five per cent of pupils said that they usually take drugs at least once a month.
• Drug use increases with age; among 11 year olds 3% reported taking drugs in the last month compared with 17% of 15 year olds.
• Four per cent of pupils reported using any Class A drug in the last year, a figure that has remained stable since 2001.
• Pupils were most likely to have taken cannabis; 9% had done so in the last year, an overall decrease from 13% in 2001.
• In 2007, 36% of pupils reported ever having been offered drugs. This figure is lower than in 2001 when it was 42%.
• As in previous years, there was widespread awareness of illegal drugs among pupils. Only 2% of pupils reported that they had never heard of any of the drugs listed.
• Ten per cent of pupils thought it is OK to try taking cannabis to see what it’s like.

For more comprehensive data on drug use and young people you can read the survey, in full or in summary form, by copying and pasting the following link into the address bar of your internet browser www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/sdd06fullreport or click here to go directly to the report.