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Illegal Drug Use Among Adolescents in Schools and Facilities: 3-Year Surveys in Taiwan

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Abstract

This study investigated and compared the prevalence of illegal drug use among students and detainees in Taiwan. Stratified sampling of schools in the major cities of Taiwan, including New Taipei City, Taichung City, and Kaohsiung City, was adopted, and surveys were conducted from 2014 to 2017. The sample in the study consists of 2,190 cohort school students and 125 detained juveniles in the Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung Juvenile Detention Houses each year. The response rate is 87% on average. The results show that 1.5% of students and 65.8% of detained juveniles have ever used drugs. From 2014 to 2017, the survey indicates that over 60% of detained juveniles have ever possessed and used drugs. The findings reveal that ketamine and disguised drugs (e.g., cathinone mix with methylamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, and ketamine) are the most popularly used drugs among Taiwanese adolescents. The findings may deserve further attention in tracking and monitoring the juvenile illicit drug use from a comprehensive national prevalence survey.

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Notes

  1. Disguised drugs in this study refer to “new psychoactive substances” (NPS), which are defined as “substances of abuse, either in a pure form or a preparation, that are not controlled by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs or the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, but which may pose a public health threat” (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2019)

  2. Among them, 29 entries enrolling in night courses of vocational or industrial high schools (advanced education) are over 20 years old. They are qualified as current students, and thus included in the following analyses.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Yuan-Hao Jheng and Shih-Jhih Lin for performing the data collection and preprocessing. The study is sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST103-2410-H194-097-SS3), Taiwan. The PI is Shu-Lung Yang. The Co-PIs include Associate Professor Sheng-Feng Dai and Associate Professor Shu-Ping Tzeng.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department and Graduate Institute of Criminology, National Chung Cheng University, No. 168, Sec. 1, University Road, Min-Hsiung, Chiayi County, 621, Taiwan

    Shu-Lung Yang, Shuping Tzeng & Shen-Feng Tai

  2. Crime Research Center, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi County, Taiwan

    Shu-Lung Yang

  3. Taiwan Society for Substance Abuse Research, Chiayi County, Taiwan

    Shu-Lung Yang

  4. Crime Prevention Research Center, Ministry of Justice, Taipei, Taiwan

    Yi-Chien Ku

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  1. Shu-Lung Yang
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Correspondence to Shuping Tzeng.

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Yang, SL., Tzeng, S., Tai, SF. et al. Illegal Drug Use Among Adolescents in Schools and Facilities: 3-Year Surveys in Taiwan. Asian J Criminol 15, 45–63 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-019-09292-1

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