Drug Abuse Monitoring: a Survey of Solvent Abuse in the County of Avon

1 An attempt to identify the extent of solvent abuse in the County of Avon by means of a multidisciplinary reporting system is described.

2 Particular attention was given to identifying abusers thought to be most at risks.

3 Altogether 304 young persons involved in solvent abuse were identified within a 6-month period. The ages of the solvent abusers ranged from 9 to 21 years and 77% were aged between 14 and 17 years.

4 Thirty-nine of the sniffers were found to be solitary users and were thought to have multiple problems and possibly a poorer prognosis than the group sniffers.

5 The problems of confidentiality and inter-agency conflict are discussed.