Lifestyle

Teenagers are using drugs to enjoy sex more - study

Teenagers and young people are deliberately getting high on drink and drugs to enhance their sexual pleasure, a study suggests.

An "epidemic" of recreational drug use and binge drinking is exposing millions of youngsters to drugs, which increases their chance of unsafe sex, experts warned.

A third of men aged 16 to 35 and a quarter of females surveyed for the study said they drank alcohol to increase their chances of getting sex.

Some also intentionally take cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis to enhance sexual arousal or prolong sex.

More than a quarter (26%) of youngsters taking cocaine said they used it to prolong sex while drug use in general was linked to having multiple partners.

For example, those who took cocaine regularly were more than five times more likely to have had five or more sexual partners in the last 12 months or have paid for sex.

Meanwhile, young people who indulged in alcohol, cannabis, cocaine or ecstasy before the age of 16 were also more likely to have sex under the age of 16.

The poll was carried out among 1,341 youngsters in nine European cities and was led by Mark Bellis, from the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University.

The authors concluded: "An epidemic of recreational drug use and binge drinking exposes millions of young Europeans to routine consumption of substances which alter their sexual decisions and increase their chances of unsafe and regretted sex.

"For many, substance use has become an integral part of their strategic approach to sex, locking them into continued use. Tackling substances with both physiological and psychological links to sex requires approaching substance use and sexual behaviour in the same way that individuals experience them, as part of the same social process."