Drug Education News

The BBC have been looking at ADHD and the issues this raises for parents and schools:
With a recent survey suggesting almost 50% of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder have been excluded at some point, parents face difficult choices.
Up to one in 20 children have ADHD, which affects concentration and can cause them to [...]

The DfES have published their specification for the evaluation of random drug testing in schools and are looking for expressions of interest.
They say:

The pilot evaluation will be conducted in approximately 35 secondary schools in two Local Authorities and will include two strands; a baseline survey, which will measure drug attitudes and behaviours, pupil-related factors - [...]

From Hansard (via They Work for You) a question on Blueprint and VSA comes from David Amess (Southend West, Conservative) who asks:
what analysis has been made of the blueprint programme on volatile substance abusers.
Vernon Coaker (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office) replies:
The blueprint drugs education programme is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a multi-component approach to [...]

I’m sure many of you will have seen the stories in the media saying that the government doesn’t intend to develop guidance for the courts about the threshold amounts of illegal drugs that would indicate intent to supply.
This followed a consultation to which the Drug Education Forum responded. You can see a summary of [...]

I’ve had my attention drawn to this research from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in America.
The research suggests that American parents underestimate the concern that their children have about drugs. Here’s the comparison:

I can’t remember seeing anything similar to this in a UK context, can anyone else?

Join Together reports on American research on a social norms campaigns aimed at college students:
The attitude of friends about drinking has more impact on college students’ alcohol use than the social-norms campaigns
The report goes on to tell a more complex tale about the research, the report’s author says:
“The study emphasizes the complex and social nature [...]

The BBC cover new TV adds on drinking which seem to be aimed at young people:
Hard-hitting TV adverts showing the dangers people face from drinking to excess are to be screened in the UK. The £4 million government campaign aims to stop binge and underage drinking. Younger people are likely to [...]

The Independent has a story on the latest drug figures and focuses on the fall in the numbers using cannabis:
Even in 16 to 24-year-olds, where drug abuse is more commonplace, the use of cannabis has significantly declined. In 1998, 28.2 per cent of that age group were estimated to have taken cannabis. That figure has [...]

The Publican reports on Scottish & Newcastle Pub Enterprises response to Home Office figures identifying their pubs as serving under 18s:
The Alcohol Misuse Enforcement Campaign which ran from May 8 to June 8 2006 found that 29 per cent of pubs across the country were caught serving under 18s.
Siobhan FitzPatrick, spokesperson for S&NPE, said: [...]

Yesterday I was rung up by a news organisation asking for an interview in relation to the story about a new drug education resource.
I said, “Sure, be happy to” but asked if it would be okay to consult some colleagues before doing the interview. This is pretty standard practice as it gives you a [...]