Increasing numbers of young people are using ecstasy, cannabis, amphetamines and cocaine to prolong sexual pleasure, government advisers said last night.
After taking the drugs, young people were much more likely to engage in unprotected sex. Their use of drugs and alcohol was "fuel for a sexual health crisis", including rising rates of chlamydia, HIV and syphilis. The government's Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV said: "There is an indisputable link between alcohol, drugs and risky sexual behaviour." Public health programmes would not work if they continued to treat sex and drugs as unconnected issues.
The group said Britain had the highest rate of sexually transmitted infections and under-18 pregnancies in Europe. Teenagers were less likely than older people to use a condom or seek sexual health advice. They were more likely to experiment with drugs that were believed to enhance sexual pleasure.
The group published evidence on sex-related drug use in Britain by Mark Bellis, head of the centre for public health at Liverpool John Moores University. He said about 650,000 people aged 16-24 have used ecstasy. "One in three users are taking it for sexual effects and one-third report having had unprotected sex afterwards," he said.
Professor Bellis said: "Ignoring the sexual side of drugs is nonsense, as the people who use them are not." People took cocaine and amphetamines to increase desire and prolong sex, although excessive use could lead to impotence. A study among gay men found the drugs doubled the risk of unprotected sex. Alcohol had a similar effect, particularly among adolescents and at first sexual intercourse.
The UK came bottom of a table of 21 countries in a recent Unicef analysis of child wellbeing. It showed British children had the highest incidence of risk-taking behaviour. More had had sexual intercourse by 15 than in any other country, more had been drunk two or more times aged 11-15, and they were the third highest users of cannabis. Over the past 12 years, chlamydia infections had increased by 300%, gonorrhoea by 200%, HIV by 300% and syphilis by 2,000%. "In a single act of unprotected sex with an infected partner, adolescent girls have a 1% chance of acquiring HIV, a 30% chance of getting genital herpes and a 50% chance of contracting gonorrhoea," the report said.
Public health campaigns could not get accurate messages across, the report said, if using accurate images was banned. For example, there were restrictions on showing a condom on television.
Lady Gould, chairwoman of the group, called on the government to put a statutory duty on schools to provide sex and relationships education. Caroline Flint, the health minister, said the government would examine the report. Simon Blake, chief executive of Brook, the sexual health charity for young people, said: "Many people still find it very difficult to talk openly about sex and relationships, and often rely on alcohol to help them deal with emotional issues. As a result, many young people ... view alcohol or other drugs as an essential part of the relationship mix."
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