Socioeconomic determinants of health, unemployment and Covid-19: impact on drug use among the European youth

This paper aims to analyse the impact of economic recessions and of the COVID-19 pandemic on the patterns of drug use among young people. 

The impact of economic downturns on public health and, more specifically, on the use of alcohol and tobacco has received significant attention in recent years. Studies have indicated that economic recessions are significantly associated with poor mental well-being and increased rates of common mental disorders (Frasquilho et al., 2016 and Valero and al., 2020). There is also a growing body of evidence to suggest that economic stressors may be associated with increases in alcohol consumption, which may be a coping mechanism to relieve stress (de Goeij et al., 2015; Dom et al., 2016; Henkel, 2011; Pacula, 2011; Rehm et al., 2020; Schmidt et al., 2021). By comparison, however, the impact of recessions on the use of illicit drugs remains under-researched (EMCDDA, in press and Nolte-Troha et al., 2023). Among the few results that seems to be clear is that impacts vary by type of drug and age of drug user.

This analysis will build on the study of  Ayllon S. and Ferreira-Batista, N., 2018. These authors applied Logit and Generalised ordered logit models (depending on the nature of the dependent variable under study) with fixed effects to analyse the impact of unemployment on drug use, access to the perceived risk of drug use and trafficking and the preferred type of drug policy. The same methods are going to be attempted using more recent data available. Additionally, a panel-data analysis will be assessed, and if feasible, estimates of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on drug use will also be made. 

By then, they concluded for instance, that the consumption of cannabis and‘new substances’ was positively related to increasing unemployment rates. They found that an increase of 1% in the regional unemployment rate was associated with an increase of 0.7 percentage points in the ratio of young peoplewho state consuming cannabis at some point in time and; with the believe that anti-drug policies should focus on the reduction of poverty and unemployment, and not on implementing tougher measures against users. The current study will assess how did young people behaviour changed in the last economic recession, i.e., during the COVID-19 pandemic.