Quick, let’s bury the good news about teenagers

OK, let’s just keep this between you and me.

Don’t want to let anyone else know in case it upsets them. We both know how unsettling it can be for people who love to moan about how the country is going to the dogs* and how feckless the young are to be confronted with any evidence to the contrary.

I think I just about got away with sharing that poll finding with you last year about how the number of people thinking our society is broken has fallen.

So fingers crossed, let’s take a risk again:

Researchers, who surveyed 6,500 young teens, found that drug-taking among secondary school children fell by 12% in the last decade, and one in four 11 to 15-year-olds had smoked at least once, the lowest proportion since the survey began in 1982.

In 2001, almost two thirds of teens said they had tried alcohol but this number fell to 45% in 2011.

Falling incidences of drug-taking, smoking and drinking? Let’s keep it just between ourselves.

* Bet you cats are laughing themselves silly over getting humans to adopt that phrase.