According to the British Crime Survey, ecstasy use among 16- to 24-year-olds in England and Wales dropped 21 percent last year. Use of amphetamines, also popular among young people attending all-night parties and dance events, also is on the decline.

The drugs have been replaced to some extent with amyl nitrate, or "poppers," a legal prescription drug used to treat angina, officials said.

Caroline Flint, the Home Office drugs minister, said the decline in ecstasy use indicates that the government's drug strategy is working.

"Young people are getting the message that drugs are harmful and some drugs can, and do, kill. It's encouraging to see signs that our work is having an effect," she said. "After increases in the late 1990s in drug use, the trend overall is now steady and drug use has remained stable since 2001/02."

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:

Posted by Alan Burgess on 17 Sep 08 05:27 AM EDT

Now being an ex-ecstasy user I can comment as to why the nightclub crowd are turning away from Ecstasy and it is nothing to do with the Governments drug strategy!, even though they will take all the credit. It is simply down to the fact that the pills currently being sold around the country are no good, plain and simple, they may be cheap but if they don`t do much people wont buy them, guarantee that if there was a whole new bunch of pills out there like what was around when raves first started, it would be a very different story indeed!!.

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