ArticleHarm reduction journal2025
Platforms, risk perceptions, and reporting: the impact of illicit drug advertisements on social media among UK secondary students.
Article in Harm reduction journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Accuracy of Patient-Reported Exposure to New Psychoactive Substances and Other Illicit Drugs in Australian Emergency Departments: Findings From the Emerging Drugs Network of Australia.Drug and alcohol review · 2026Article
- Temporal Relationships between Smartphone Application Use and Online Substance Procurement in U.S. Youth.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe sale and advertisement of illicit drugs on social media is a rapidly evolving landscape. While existing research has focused on market structures, purchase strategies, and platform types, there is limited understanding of how viewing such content affects young people. This study aims to examine young people's experiences with illicit drug ads on social media and explore the relationship between exposure to these ads and their attitudes and behaviours towards drug use.
methodsWe conducted an online survey of students aged 13-18 (N = 1,151), distributed to UK schools by two drug education charities. Participants had a mean age of 14.7 years (SD = 1.28), and gender distribution was roughly equal (51% female, 47% male).
resultsMost participants encountered drug-related content on social media, with 29% having seen illicit drugs advertised for sale without actively searching for them. While Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok were the most common platforms for these ads, rates of exposure per unit of time were found to vary across platforms. Exposure to drug safety advice differed across platforms, with participants reporting encountering drug safety advice more frequently than illicit drug ads on TikTok for example, highlighting the potential for leveraging social media to promote drug safety. We also find significant associations between young people's exposure to content and decreased risk perceptions, along with increased interest in and intention to buy illicit drugs.
conclusionOur research is the first to provide a detailed understanding of platform exposure to illicit drug ads on social media, highlighting the need for research across diverse platforms. Despite our findings, the impact of exposure to drug ads remains unclear. We advocate for a new approach to studying this issue, integrating an online safety perspective.
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