50 percent of the students in Frankfurt had had one-time experience with hash

By Khaled Schmitt, IOL Correspondent

BONNE, February 11 (IslamOnline.net) – Up to 50 percent of school students between the age of 13 to 18 in the German city of Frankfurt have experimented with drugs and alcohol, with Muslim students recording the lowest percentage, revealed a field study by Frankfurt anti-narcotics department.

The study, a copy of which was faxed to IslamOnline.net, showed that two percent of the students had tried hardcore drugs like heroin and crack cocaine.

Conducted on 1500 students from 17 schools, the study said 50 percent of the students had had one-time experience with hash.

Ninety-five percent said they smoked hash in cigarettes, while 91 percent said they drank alcohol.

The study further showed that the surveyed students started smoking and drinking alcohol at 13, taking hash at 15 and heroin at 16.

Muslim students hit the lowest percentage, although the study did not state a specific figure.

There is no official census for the number of Muslim students in Frankfurt – the capital of the state of Hessen – but education statistics indicate that one out of every five students is Muslim.

There are some 70,000 Muslim students in the Hessen; amounting to 7.9 percent of the students.

The general rule in Islam is that any beverage that get people intoxicated when taken is unlawful, both in small and large quantities, whether it is alcohol or drugs.

The study followed a World Health Organization (WHO) report on child drugs addiction around the world which warned that more than half a million children and teenagers in Germany are addicted to drugs and alcohol.

The report, which was highlighted by German Der Spiegel magazine on Tuesday, February 10, said most of the students started drinking alcohol at the down-the-line age of four and became of addicts at 10.

The addicts came from different backgrounds and cross-sections of society.

Last October, reports said that the number of Germans who embraced Islam was rising each year and getting younger and younger.