Today’s students avoid drugs more than ever.
Only one in 10 members of Generation Z have ever used a Class A substance such as cocaine or ectsasy.
Usage was twice as high among members of Generation X during their party years in the late 1990s, official figures show.
In addition to avoiding drugs, the health-conscious generation also drinks less alcohol and avoids red meat.
Cannabis remains the drug of choice for young people aged 16 to 24, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found in its annual drugs survey.
Just over a quarter of all young adults surveyed between April 2023 and March 2024 said they had ever smoked marijuana in their lives.
Eight percent have tried cocaine.
Despite seeing a drop in use of all 22 drugs analyzed, today’s young adults take more ketamine than previous generations.
Nearly 7 percent of today’s 16- to 24-year-olds have experimented with Ket, commonly taken at late-night raves.
By comparison, 2.3 percent of Gen Xers surveyed before the turn of the century had ever tried the substance, originally used as an anesthetic in animals such as horses and humans.
The slight year-on-year decline is due to increasing warnings issued about the “campus killer.”
Dozens of student deaths in recent years have been linked to Ket, including those of Sophie Russell and Rian Rogers.
Russell, from Lincolnshire, first took ketamine, which killed TV star Matthew Perry, in 2021 when he was offered it during a night out with friends. The 20-year-old soon developed a rampant addiction and took the drug daily.
His mother, Tracy Marelli, pleaded with ministers to reclassify the party drug as Class A following his death.
Rogers, from Atherstone in Warwickshire, died after taking a dose 10 to 20 times more potent than usual.
His mother, Clare, also asked for ketamine to be included in the harsher group.
Dozens of student deaths in recent years have been linked to Ket, including those of Sophie Russell and Rian Rogers. Russell, from Lincolnshire, first took ketamine, which killed TV star Matthew Perry, in 2021 when he was offered it during a night out with friends. The 20-year-old soon developed a rampant addiction and took the drug daily. His mother Tracy Marelli (pictured together) pleaded with ministers to reclassify the party drug as Class A following his death.
Rogers, from Atherstone in Warwickshire, died after taking a dose 10 to 20 times more potent than usual. Her mother Clare (pictured together) also asked for ketamine to be included in the most severe group.
Ketamine, which can be purchased for the same price as a takeaway coffee, is said to be the drug of choice for dealers because its Class B status means less prison time than being caught with Class A drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy or heroin.
Nitrous oxide – dispensed in balloons and inhaled to create a temporary feeling of relaxation and euphoria – has also greatly fallen out of fashion.
Only 3.3 percent of Gen Zers said they had used ‘hippy crack’ in the past 12 months, with rates at an all-time low.
The nitrous oxide drop also comes amid warnings about lead side effects, including dizziness, leg weakness and memory problems.
The ONS report, based on a survey of thousands of people, also came after the government’s ban on hippy crack.
Possession was made illegal last autumn under plans to tackle the plague of anti-social behaviour.
Overall, 3 per cent of adults (which the ONS said was equivalent to 1 million people aged 16 to 59 in England and Wales) reported taking a Class A medicine in the last 12 months.
Although drug use is declining, vaping is at endemic levels.
Shocking statistics show that a quarter of today’s children have attempted to inhale the nicotine-laden devices littering stores across the country.
Worse, a tenth are now regular users, raising fears of a future health crisis given the mystery surrounding the long-term safety of e-cigarettes.
It comes after it was reported that boozy office Christmas parties are being replaced by golf and table tennis tournaments, as Gen Z workers demand sober celebrations and companies seek to avoid sexual harassment allegations.
A huge cultural shift over the past 10 years has seen more than a fifth of large businesses eschew traditional pubs and bars for their festive events in favor of sober ‘activities’, which won’t leave behind the usual embarrassment or hangover.
While the vast majority of work Christmas parties were held in pubs a decade ago, the number of alternative venues has grown steadily since then.
Today, one-fifth of office parties will be alcohol-free.
The move comes after new laws made companies responsible for protecting staff from sexual harassment, which includes unwanted drunks touching mistletoe.
But a new generation of young workers is also less likely to drink and willing to maintain stricter boundaries between their work and social lives.