Abstract
The chapter regards new drug use indicators that have been proposed and
applied since 2014 to measure individual levels of harm from drug use also considering
poly-drug use. Such behaviour has been increasing since 2000. Indicators are based on
the frequency of drug use within a specific time period and expert groups’ harm scores
for the various substances used. The indicators allow the estimation of risk profiles for
selected groups of individuals and comparisons over time and between populations.
Recent advances in the classification of drug harms allow refinement of these
indicators, separating harm consequences on self and effects on others.
The new indicators have been applied to many datasets of problematic or adolescent
populations (ESPAD survey for example) allowing comparisons among countries and
populations in the framework of international projects.
Using ESPAD-Italy survey information also related to personal behaviour, it was
shown that high values of poly-drug use indicators are linked to specific behaviours
related to interest in school, relationship with parents and use of leisure time. These
results are consistent with previous analyses based on surveys among high school
students in Italy.
The most recent applications illustrate how the new approach can be used to assess the
link between drug use and personal behaviour among adolescents with school drop-out
in order to design proper prevention policies.