Bucks Youth Summit 2025 – The Substance Space

Education

• • The most effective way to educate young people on smoking, vaping, and substance use, and prevent young people from taking these things up, is through other young people / young adults sharing their lived experiences.
  • We want clear and relevant information from young people who have experienced substance misuse and those growing up in a household where parents are users.
  • We want more in-school education on substances and substance use.
  • We want more education on the impact of our choices and guidance on how to manage peer pressure.
  • We want more PSHE.

Vaping, smoking and tobacco

• Vapes are easily accessible for young people from corner shops, dealers, social media, and services like Deliveroo and JustEat.
• TikTok shops are popping up all the time, often targeting specific year groups.
• We are highly aware that vapes are targeted towards young people, for example with the colours and flavours advertised.
• Nicotine pouches and snus (tobacco product) are becoming more popular for young people.
• We know corner shops don’t care about young people’s health, and they happily sell vapes to children and young people. They are a bit stricter with smoking.
• Some of us believe vaping is ‘too far gone’ – that it is too much of an issue to change.
• School is a major influence for us when it comes to vaping, tobacco, and substances – both in terms of formal learning about these issues, but also the social environment that promotes it – e.g. students vaping / smoking / smoking weed in toilets.

Vaping, smoking and tobacco support

• Most of us in the Substance Space today have little awareness of formal services to help young people around vaping and smoking.
• We call for a ‘Stop Vaping’ Service!

Mental health and resilience

• Professionals in this space noticed that we as young people have strong self-awareness around coping strategies and mechanisms, and the link between mental health and substance use.

Substance support

• • Most of us are confident in having a trusted adult or service we can approach if we or someone we know has an issue with substances.
  • We have mixed feelings about whether we would seek help from school – School is a trusted place for some of us, but others of us would never trust our school.
  • Parents influence our attitudes towards drugs.
  • Some of us are concerned about data confidentiality if we reach out for support – for example if our parents/carers will be told, getting into trouble.

  A message from Stewart, Operations Manager at Hear4Youth:

  “At our outreach sessions and first interactions with young people who seek our help, we make it clear we won’t tell mum, dad, teachers, or anyone else about you reaching out to us and the things we work on together.
  The only exception to this is if there is a safety risk for you or another young person and we need to share what you’ve told us to keep everybody safe.”