ONE IN FOUR KIDS GETS DRUNK BY AGE 15

TORONTO -- A first-ever look at alcohol and drug use among young Canadians by the country's statistics collectors reveals a few things parents might find unsettling.

A significant proportion of kids is getting an early start on experimenting with illicit substances, suggests the survey, the first time Statistics Canada has asked 12- to 15-year-olds about drinking and drugs.

Nearly half reported they'd had at least one drink, and nearly a quarter admitted they'd been drunk at least once.  One in five confessed to having smoked marijuana.

The youngest children in the survey sample weren't asked about hallucinogens, but 11 per cent of the 14- and 15-year-olds reported having tried these drugs.

Because this is the first look at this age group, the authors can't say whether those figures are higher or lower than previous generations of young teens.  But an expert in the field said the age of experimentation has dropped over the past decade.  And that's worrisome, said David Wolfe, a specialist in child psychology and child abuse at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

"The younger you experiment with either sex, with substances and any other adult privileges, the greater the chances that you're going to get into trouble," Wolfe said Tuesday.  "It's that simple." The figures were contained in an article published Tuesday in Health Reports, a regular publication released by Statistics Canada.  The data were drawn from the national longitudinal survey of children and youth, which follows a representative group of children from across the country every two years -- 1998-99 in this instance.  The analysis was based on responses from 4,296 adolescents, their parents and teachers.  Of those young teens who did drink, the average age at which they first imbibed was 12.4 years; the average age at which they first got drunk was 13.2 years.  They first used drugs, on average, somewhere between 13.1 years and 13.8 years of age, depending on the drug.

There was little difference between the usage patterns of kids living in rural and urban settings, a fact that surprised lead author Tina Hotton, an analyst with Statistic Canada's centre for justice statistics.

"I think that there's a myth that drug use is an urban problem," she said in an interview.  Hotton was also surprised that there didn't appear to be a gender gap: girls were as likely to experiment as boys.

Wolfe found no surprise there, saying that while girls once lagged behind boys in illicit behaviours such as drug use and smoking, that's no longer the case.

"Girls are clearly catching up," he said.