Drug Education News

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 enlightening media release.

“The whole idea,’ explains Farmer ‘is to teach children how to cope with the many challenges they face in school, like bullying, rejection and conflict.” By, er, ignoring the elephant in the lounge room.

The site also has a reaction from a former Research Fellow at the National Drug Research Institute, Ben Haines, who argues:

The massive base of research evidence clearly demonstrates that at best, drug education programs have no impact whatsoever on drug use, and at-worst, they can make drug use seem more attractive. In contrast, Pat Farmer’s media release is completely accurate in stating that children with resilience, strong family relationships, good social relationships, and societal engagement are at greatly reduced risk of drug use and drug harm. Teaching kids how to look after themselves does a lot more to reduce drug use than drug education projects do.