Drug Education News

The Daily Telegraph covers a story from the Ecologist which looks at the increasing use of Ritalin with children diagonsed with ADHD:
 

The Ecologist article, written by Rachel Ragg, a former Leeds University lecturer and mother of two, points out that almost 400,000 children were last year prescribed Ritalin, a drug almost unknown in Britain in [...]

The Daily Mail report the views of the chairman of the association of preparatory schools:

Children are being attracted to a “toxic” cocktail of drugs, junk food and unsuitable internet material, a leading private school headteacher warned today.
The ease at which youngsters can gain access to drugs and alcohol is threatening their long-term health, [...]

It’s a bit self-referential, but my thanks to the DrugScope Blog.
In their Friday Focus this week, which looks at where Anne gets her information about drug issues, she says the following about the feeds she finds useful:
At the moment, my most regularly useful feeds include JRF Findings, JRF Reports, the Drug Education Forum Blog, and [...]

The Times reports on new American research on parental awareness of young people’s drug misuse:
EVEN the most observant parents, with the most open family relationships, are oblivious to most of their children’s use and abuse of alcohol, cigarettes and drugs, research from Washington University School of Medicine suggests.
In the first study to attempt to quantify [...]

I’ve come across two abstracts for articles which are available for purchase:
Drug Education in England - During the 1990s there have been many government initiatives to tackle drug misuse. Education and prevention has been a major area for funding. Many of the programmes have involved monitoring and research, the results of which have been made [...]

Professor Neil McKeganey, who has recently called for research into drug testing on pupils, has now called for testing of teachers. The Daily Record report:
He said it made no sense to only target children when drugs could still be abused by teachers.
But education leaders and unions condemned the proposal as “unethical”.
McKeganey said: [...]

Drink and Drug News take a look at what the speakers at the recent Action on Addiction conference on the future of drugs prevention had to say about the future of drug education. Here are some of the people they report:
Professor John Strang, director of the National Addiction Centre:
New work was being done on [...]

As I said in the previous post the Drug Education Forum doesn’t have a single view on random drug testing in schools. Some of our members believe it could be a valuable tool for schools others believe it is incompatible with creating a supportive environment for young people’s learning.
Professor Neil McKeganey, who has been [...]

DrugScope have welcomed the ACMD’s recommendation that schools shouldn’t use random drug testing in schools. Young People Now have the story:

Jenny McWhirter, head of education and prevention at drugs charity DrugScope, said there was no evidence that drug testing in schools actually worked: “There are strong ethical grounds against it and we need the [...]

From the BBC in Scotland:
Glue-sniffing and other forms of solvent abuse are being overlooked in the fight against drugs, according to a new report. The authors said the problem, which was discussed at length in the 1970s and 1980s, was now poorly understood among professionals and the public. They claimed more consultative work [...]