Drug Education News

Monitoring And Evaluating Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Programmes is a new handbook for practitioners who “want to improve the monitoring and evaluation of their programmes for the prevention of substance and drug abuse among youth”:
In substance abuse prevention, there are few formal standards to be followed. So how do you know that what you are [...]

St George’s University of London have published their 19th annual report on deaths associated with VSA.
13 young people under the age of 18 died in 2004 as a result of VSA. This follows 9 dying in 2003 and 24 in 2002.
7 young people between the ages of 19 and 24 died in 2004. [...]

The BBC have a story about Volatile Substance Abuse:
Doctors have warned teenagers about the dangers of sniffing mothballs after two teenagers fell ill through the habit.
An 18-year-old French girl had to be hospitalised when she developed scaly skin on her legs and hands, unsteadiness and mental sluggishness.
Medics were initially puzzled, especially as her twin sister [...]

The Guardian carries a story about the amount and effectiveness of drug education in schools. The story comes from a report issued by Ofsted:
Ofsted said most of schools in the survey, which were chosen for their good records on health matters, were making ‘a valuable contribution’ children’s well-being.
But inspectors said all schools in England [...]

Lord Warner, a Minister in the Department of Health, answering a question about illegal drugs and schizophrenia says:
In 2004 the Government produced guidance to schools on all matters relating to drug education. This has recently been updated to specifically highlight the dangers that cannabis use can lead to a wide range of physical and psychological [...]

The House of Lords debated an amendment to the Education Bill which would have made PSHE a statutory subject. Here is Lord Adonis, the Education Minister, on why the government does not accept the need to go down this route:
I acknowledge the immense contributions that my noble friends Lady Massey and Lady Gould have [...]

The Daily Mail report on government figures for people who have been caught in posession of cannabis:
Cannabis crime has exploded since Labour downgraded the seriousness of being caught with the drug.
Government figures reveal an alarming 36 per cent increase in possession of cannabis last year - the equivalent of almost 32,000 more offences. [more]
The evidence [...]

Drink and Drugs News have a story on work by youth services in Nottingham:
It’s not just what you say on drug education, it’s the way that you say it. Youth leaders in Nottingham went a step further, inviting their young people to take to the microphone against drug-related gun crime and violence.

Drink and Drugs News carry a story about alcohol consumption:
hospital admissions from alcoholic liver disease have more than doubled over the past decade, with 35,400 admissions in 2004-05, compared to 14,400 in 1995-96…
Surveys carried out by the Information Centre (IC) during 2004-5 confirmed that young people were more likely to binge drink than any other [...]

The BBC have a story on the health impact of smoking:
Smoking is to blame for half of the difference in death rates between men in the top and bottom social classes, say international researchers.
In England, Wales, the US, Canada and Poland, men of lower social class, income or education have a two-fold increased risk of [...]