Kids as young as 8 'smoking dope' - expert warning

Irish schoolchildren as young as eight are experimenting with drugs, leading to problems by their early teens, a leading psychiatrist has warned.

Dr Gerry McCarney, who works with the young person's programme at the National Drug Treatment Centre (NDTC), said it was not unusual to meet young people who began smoking cannabis as young as eight or 10.

The psychiatrist, who deals with young drug-takers under the SASSY Project Dublin, (Substance Abuse Service Specific to Youth), warned that large numbers of young children could be falling under the radar when it comes to drugs and alcohol experimentation.

"It's not unusual for me to meet a young person who began smoking cannabis for instance at the age of 10. And that's a worry," he said.

"I think the youngest person we have worked with was 11, when they came into us. Obviously they had started using sometime before that. Certainly we have quite a few people who would have begun drug use earlier than that. I think the earliest that someone indicated they had begun dabbling with cannabis was eight," he added.

He called for a greater level of drug awareness education to be rolled out in national schools around the country.

Speaking in Galway as part of the 2015 Regional Drug and Alcohol Awareness Week, he said society needs to get across a simple message to children, and this must be backed up by further education. "We need to get across that whatever you do as you grow up and whatever people are telling you to do, you need to stand back and make your own decisions about what is safe," he added.