Among adolescents aged 15-17, 64% have experience of smoking, 87% have consumed alcohol, while 25% have tried drugs, according to a survey presented by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Kyiv on June 12.
According to the survey, among adolescents aged 15-17, 74% of boys and 61% of girls have experience of smoking. Some 20% of adolescents smoke every day, while 16% of boys and 7% of girls smoke more than six cigarettes a day. The number of boys who started smoking at the age of 13 and earlier decreased from 15% to 9% from 2003 to 2011, and the number of such girls shrank from 5% to 4%.
According to the study, the percentage of young people aged 15-17 who consumed alcohol at least once in their lifetime reached 87%. Teens try alcohol for the first time at the age of 13 or earlier. Some 40% of those polled said that they had already felt the state of alcoholic intoxication in the past 12 months, while one in twelve children at the age of 13 or earlier have already been in this state.
