IT HAS become "cool" among teenagers in Kent and other parts of the South East to talk about drugs, research has revealed.

But one-fifth of teenagers say their friends pretend to take drugs to fit in with their peers.

A report for the confidential drugs helpline Frank, says youngsters in the region are now more prone to talking up their behaviour.

Statistics reveal that about 20 per cent of teenagers quizzed said their friends were pressured into faking drug taking in order to fit in better with their peers.

The report, which questioned more than 1,000 11 to 18-year-olds across the United Kingdom, also said boys were twice as likely as girls to pretend they took drugs.

Dr Peter Marsh, author of the report and director of the Social Issues Research Centre, said: "Teenagers today learn to understand who they are by defining themselves through social bonds and affiliations with a peer group.

"As they make the hormone-laden journey from child to adult, they forge a personal identity by first creating a social identity.

"Music tastes and appearance are the obvious ways to define oneself, but the ways in which young people talk about themselves to their peers also helps them to create a sense of self. To be an individual, we first need to be one of the lads or lasses."

Darren Hall, spokesman for Frank, said it was encouraging that while young people talked about drug-taking, they were not necessarily experimenting with drugs themselves.

He stressed: "It is important to get the facts about drugs rather than relying on hearsay or urban myths. Drugs can be dangerous and taking them is not a fashion statement."

KM-fm's Jenny Keeling spoke to a Kent headmaster Peter Walker, about the issue and has this special report...