1. Teenagers and NPS in Poland – attitudes and behaviors Tomasz Białas Agnieszka Batko Chief Sanitary Inspectorate, Poland Lisbon,

2. General Information
The survey : - conducted in September 2016 by a self-administered questionnaire - on a representative sample of 5,500 students in randomly selected schools in Poland - estimation error does not exceed 1.23% with a confidence level of 95% - covered two age groups Sample lower-secondary school (age ) upper-secondary school (age ) general upper-secondary school (G) technical upper-secondary school (T) basic vocational school (BV)

3. NPS and other stimulants NPS – 10,3 % Female 8 % Male 12,1 %

4. NPS prevalence according to types of school
Lifetime prevalence
Past 12 months
Past 30 days
age
14-15
6,5 %
2,6 %
1,3 %
17-18 G
5 %
1,8 %
0,6 % T
11,3 %
3,9 %
1,1 % BV
24 %
10,6 %
4,3 %
average
10,5 %
4 %
1,4 %

5. NPS lifetime prevalence according to age and regions
Min. 1
Max. 11,4
Min. 4,99
Max. 18,87

6. NPS prevalence according to regions and types of schools (age 17-18 life prevalence)
Min. 1, Min. 3, Min. 3,6
Max. 11, Max Max. 39,6

7. NPS users in Poland according to type of area Haw many time did you buy NPS ?
Rural areas
Urban areas
Big cities
Total % N
10,5
267
11,8 %
165
8,8
137
567
How many times did you buy NPS ?
Rural areas
Urban areas
Big cities 1
56,1 %
52,2 %
48,8 %
2 - 5 times
21,7 %
24,2 %
25,6 %
6 Times or more
22,1 %
23,6 %

8. When did you first try NPS (age 11-19 in %)?

9. How did you use NPS ? age 14-15 age 17-18 % N smoking 78,3 % 112 85,4%
78,3 %
112
85,4%
321
taking orally 
22,4 % 32
16,8 % 63
snorting
27,3 % 39
20,7% 78
injecting
11,9 % 17
7,7 % 29
other
6,3 % 9
1,9 % 7

10. How did you get NPS in %

11. How much did you spend on NPS a month?
Euro per month
age
age % N
0 – 7 €
52,9 % 36
53,8 % 86
8 – 25 €
13,2 % 9
19,4 % 31
26 – 50 €
7,4 % 5
11,3 % 18
More than 50 €
26,5 %
15,6 % 25

12. How many times did you buy NPS ?
age
age G T BV 1
58,9%
58,0 %
51,4 %
49,3 %
2 - 5 times
15,9%
16,0%
30,6 %
26,2 %
6 times
or more
25,2%
26,0 %
18,0 %
24,5 % € €

13. Why do you think young people take NPS?

14. Negative consequences of using NPS
Have you ever had any negative consequences due to taking NPS? % N
Yes
17,1 % 98 No
65,3 %
374
Hard to say
16,9 % 97

15. Negative consequences of using NPS€ €

16. Have you heard about the harmful effects of using NPS?
age
age G T BV No
4,1%
1,9 %
3,0 %
7,2 %
Yes
95,8%
97,9%
96,6 %
92,4 %
No answer
0,1%
0,2 %
0,4 % € €

17. Do you think the occasional use of NPS is harmless ?
age
age G T BV
Yes
10,2%
4,3 %
5,6 %
12,6 %
Rather yes
8,1%
6,8 %
10,4 %
12,8 %
Rather no
14,6%
16,7 %
15,5 %
17,7 % No
41,4 %
55,5%
45,0 %
31,4 %
Hard to say
25,7 %
16,8 %
23,6 %
25,6 % € €

18. Conclusions
Students at the age have more experience with NPS (10.5%) than students at the age of (6.5%); the age of NPS initiation is indicated at about 14-16;
There are significant regional differences in the percentage of NPS users: age (1 - 11%), (5 - 19%);
The strongest diversity in the use of NPS seems to be the level of education and professional aspirations, in the group (5% in general upper secondary school – 24% in basic vocational school);
Half of the respondents claim that they have not bought NPS at all. The most important distribution channel are dealers (friends: 36.8% and unknown dealers: 23.5%); 17.9% of respondents buy NPS in the store and 8.5% on the web;
The dominant way of using it is smoking % - which may be a confirmation of popularity of synthetic cannabinoids; every 5-th respondent pointed to snorting, and every 6-th to taking NPS orally;
Most users spend monthly up to 7 € (52%), 17% spend up to 25 €, and 18% more than 50 €. This shows relatively low costs of using NPS;
Most students (58.1%) are convinced of the potential health risks associated with taking NPS, even occasionally, are high. The vast majority (96%) obtained information on the harmful effects of the NPS;
Young Poles take NPS for pleasure and because of group conformism (low level assertiveness), issues of addiction and problems are less important.

19. Thank you for your attention
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