I’ve been working on a new website for the Drug Education Forum which I hope you’ll want to go and take a look at.
As you’ll immediately see the new site includes video that we shot asking young people to talk about their sense of the value of drug education as well as other resources that we’ve produced over the last few years.
The idea is that we’ll also integrate this blog into the main site which will I hope will make the rest of our site more accessible.
Anyway I’m hoping you’ll like the site and if you have any feedback you’ll let me know.
Filed under: Drug Education Forum Members
10 November, 2009 • 8:35 pm
Via the SHEU, I bring your attention to some American research into when to start primary prevention with a focus on alcohol, Sixth Grade Students Who Use Alcohol: Do We Need Primary Prevention Programs for "Tweens"?
I think that here that many of us have been arguing the need for early intervention for some time, including the need to start drug education earlier rather than later.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I’ve had my attention drawn to a couple of pieces of research which look at children living with parents with alcohol problems.
First is a report reflecting on the experiences of those who have called Childline in Scotland, Untold Damage; children’s accounts of living with harmful parental drinking.
Amongst their recommendations they say:
Alcohol education in schools should be sensitive
Filed under: Uncategorized
9 November, 2009 • 11:05 am
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More than 2000 youngsters in Scotland have contacted ChildLine in the past decade to talk about their parents’ harmful drinking.
At least 230 contacted the help line in 2008/09 – with 87 talking about physical abuse in relation to their parents’ drinking.
By contrast, about 0.1% of children in England, Wales and Northern Ireland called the discuss the issue.
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A couple of interesting visualisations of the statistics around deaths caused by individual drugs and the amount of press coverage they received.
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Teenagers across Europe are using cannabis less but are more likely to binge drink, according to latest data from drug addiction monitoring experts.
Filed under: Delicious
7 November, 2009 • 11:03 am
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Lax standards of school discipline make pupils more likely to turn to crime and drugs, Government research has revealed.
The Home Office study found pupils at schools which were soft on violence and truanting more likely to break the law.
As a result, the authors urged ministers to consider toughening up discipline policies.
Worryingly, the survey of young people's behaviour found nearly three quarters were caught up in either crime, drug taking or anti-social behaviour over four years. Over a single year, the figure was 44%.
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"Sex and drug lessons will be compulsory under plans announced by the Schools Secretary. "
Despite the title there's nothing in the body of the story about drug education.
Filed under: Delicious
6 November, 2009 • 11:04 am
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Religious groups reacted with anger to the move by the Schools Secretary, which will make it compulsory for all pupils aged 15 will learn about relationships, sex and drugs over the course of a year. The age of consent in the UK is 16. The Muslim Council of Britain vowed to mount a challenge to the new laws that it says contravene the right for children to be taught according to their parents’ tradition.
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Cannabis use among teenagers has continued to decline in the UK owing to a change in attitudes in the current generation of school students, according to the annual survey from the European drug agency.
But Britain has retained its position in top spot for cocaine consumption with 5% of young adults aged 15 to 24 reporting that they have used the drug in the past year.
Filed under: Delicious
5 November, 2009 • 11:15 pm
I’ve been sent the press release confirming that PSHE will be made a statutory subject:
Ed Balls confirmed today that Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education will be made compulsory in schools from September 2011.
PSHE gives young people the information they need to make the right choices about their future. It covers a range of issues young people growing up today face such as
Filed under: Uncategorized
The EMCDDA have produced their annual report looking at drug problems across the continent.
They have a section looking at prevention, in which they talk about some of the universal programmes that have been undertaken across the continent.
As you may expect that includes EUDAP’s Unplugged programme on which they say:
After 2 years, the programme has been found to be effective in reducing
Filed under: Uncategorized
3 November, 2009 • 11:06 am
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"As for his comments about horse riding being more dangerous than ecstasy, which you quote with such reverence, it is of course a political rather than a scientific point. There are not many kids in my constituency in danger of falling off a horse – there are thousands at risk of being sucked into a world of hopeless despair through drug addiction."
Alan Johnson MP in a letter to the Guardian explaining his decision to sack the Chair of the ACMD
Filed under: Delicious
