Drug Education News

The RAND Corporation have produced a report on The Evidence Base for the Classification of Drugs for the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology. Here’s what they say about drug education:

One of the key aims of the ten year drugs strategy launched in 1998(1) was to increase the education of Britain’s youth about the dangers of drugs. This was reiterated in the 2002 update to the drug strategy(2). There are clear guidelines within the National Curriculum on how to teach drug education within schools(2); this builds on a wealth of evidence that effective education requires peer involvement and interaction(3). By 2002 80% of primary schools and 96% of secondary schools had adopted drugs education policies. The levels of young (16-24) drug users reported in the recent British Crime Survey(4) and a European study into school age children using drugs(5) suggest that numbers of young drug users are falling. The BCS shows that the use of all drugs except cocaine had dropped since 1998. The European study found that the numbers of school children who had taken any illegal drugs fell between 1995 and 1999; this number has risen slightly in the most recent survey in 2003.

They go on to say:

Of the £1.5 billion that the government pledges annually to tackling the drugs problem, around 75% of the budget is spent on enforcing drug laws, with 12% spent on education and 13% spent on treatment in 1998.

(1)Home Office (199 Tackling drugs to build a better Britain: The Government’s 10 year strategy for tackling drugs misuse, HMSO cm3945.
http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm39/3945/3945.htm
(2) Home Office Drug Strategy Directorate (2002) Updated drug strategy 2002, Home Office, ISBN 1-84082-9397. http://tinyurl.com/9uuca.
(3) Department for Education and Skills (2004) Drugs: guidance for schools, DfES/0092/2004.
http://www.drugscope.org.uk/uploads/projects/documents/A5-drugs-guidance-bklet_AW2.pdf and http://tinyurl.com/bavpe
(4) Health Education Authority (1993) Peers in Partnership: HIV/AIDS Education with Young People in the Community; Hansen, W.B. and Graham, J.W. (1991) ‘Preventing alcohol, marijuana and cigarette use amongst adolescents: peer pressure resistance training versus establishing conservative norms’, Preventative Medicine 10, 414-30; Turner, G. and Shepherd, J. (1999) ‘A method in search of a theory: peer education and health promotion’, Health Education Research, 14:2, 235-247.
(5) Roe, S. (2005) Drug misuse declared: Findings from the 2004-2005 British crime survey - England and Wales, Home Office Statistical Bulletin, ISBN 1358-510X http://www.homeOffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb1605.pdf