Drug Education News

According to a Home Office press release on underage drinking Kevin Hawkins, Director General, British Retail Consortium is arguing:
“fundamental changes in the binge drinking culture will take longer to achieve and will require a comprehensive strategy involving Government, schools, parents and other stakeholders.”
Children and young people have been consistent in saying they want more support [...]

As part of a wider story on the fall in the number of people saying they have used illegal drugs the Daily Mail report:

Among 16-24-year-olds, cannabis use in the year before being interviewed fell from 24.8% in 2003-4 to 23.5% in the latest figures. The proportion of young people who said they had used any [...]

This American paper on the association between alcohol advertising and alcohol use among young people clearly has limits in terms of how applicable it is here. However, there are clear signs about what children and young people find attractive in alcohol advertising:
“young girls were attracted to animals’ cuteness, whereas boys were attracted to animals’ actions [...]

The Home Office have announced the appointment of two new members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs:
“The two new appointees are Mrs Samantha Mortimer, Head of Personal, Social, Health Education and Citizenship at St Paul’s Catholic High School in Manchester and Mr Patrick Hargreaves, Adviser for Drugs and Alcohol at Durham County [...]

TheyWorkForYou.com has sent me a written answer on under-age drinking that may be of interest. The question comes from Charles Walker was:

what measures she is taking to reduce the incidence of under-age drinking among school pupils; and if she will make a statement.

Jacqui Smith, the Minister of State (Schools) in the Department for Education and [...]

A little off our beaten track but perhaps useful as an example of how drug education stories play eslewhere in the world. The story comes from the Crikey Website in Australia:
One and All is a drug education kit for teachers with model activities that deliberately leave out the word ‘drugs’, Mr Farmer announces in this [...]

I missed this paper, Smells Like Teen Spirit: Talking not taking in the teenage music tribe, from Frank from August last year. Here are the key findings:

• Boys are twice as likely as girls to say that they have taken drugs when they have not
• 17% of 11-13 year-olds, 21% of 14-16 year olds and [...]

The Observer:
“The fullest survey yet into the UK’s crack and heroin trade shows it is fuelled by children and teenagers in search of a quick fortune…
An in-depth, 20-month investigation by a team of criminologists and drugs experts from King’s College London - including, for the first time, testimony from scores of dealers themselves - has [...]

From Drink and Drug News:

“Professor David Clark continues to look at the seminal research study conducted by Professor Howard Parker and colleagues, which provided essential insights into British youth culture and the role of drugs and alcohol among adolescents during the 1990s”

We covered the earlier part of this article here and when I get [...]

Drink and Drugs News:
“The Home Office has announced a new focus to its FRANK campaign, to target vulnerable young people who find themselves particularly at risk of drug use. Groups include children in care, young offenders, truants, young homeless, children of problematic drug users, young people exploited by prostitution and young refugees. The focus will [...]