Drug Education News

Mentor UK have released a report on the feedback that their Youth Involvement Project has given the DCSF about the new drug strategy.
In the press release that accompanies the report Susi Farnworth says:
Young people are those most affected by drug misuse. The government’s own survey of pupils tells that one in seven 12 to 15 [...]

NICE have published their guidance on school based interventions to prevent and reduce alcohol use among children and young people.
The introduction to the guidance makes it clear that its scope goes beyond schools:
The guidance also covers pupil referral units, secure training units, local authority secure units and further education colleges.
It is for teachers, school governors [...]

One of the pieces of public health guidance that NICE are currently developing is about preventing the uptake of smoking by young people.
They have now published the review of the evidence, which looks at the effectiveness of mass media and point of sales measures in achieving that aim. I’ll focus on the findings in [...]

Via TheyWorkForYou:
Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what provision the alcohol harm reduction strategy contains for the treatment of under-18 year olds; and what associated initiatives are located in Wirral West constituency.
Kevin Brennan: I have been asked to reply.
‘Safe. Sensible. Social’. The updated alcohol harm reduction strategy for England identifies [...]

The Guardian has access to new research that the Roy Castle Foundation will be publishing in the near future.  It looks at how and why young people start smoking, making the case that knowledge about the health risks alone is not enough to prevent young people from starting:
“By the end of primary school, children [...]

The Independent in a piece largely about the Serious Organised Crime Agency quote Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor, Brian Paddick:
“The Government’s drugs strategy is failing and their attempts to rectify the situation are ill-conceived. Despite a 20 per cent reduction in cannabis use, Labour are proposing to re-classify cannabis from class C to class [...]

The guidance on alcohol interventions in school are to be released in the next week. According to the media reaction that’ll mean alcohol education for 5 year olds. The Telegraph says:
Children as young as five are to get lessons on the dangers of alcohol in an attempt to tackle Britain’s growing binge-drinking epidemic.
From [...]

I’ve been meaning to bring a comment made by Mark to higher prominence on the blog in the hope of soliciting your views.  Mark asks:
It clearly states in the guidance that we should consider why, what where when and if we should use ex/stable drug users to add value to drug education within school or [...]

Worcester News on how they (and the rest of the media) view young people:
YOUNG people tend to get a bad press in this country. All too often the media - and we do not exclude ourselves in this statement - portray youngsters as hoodie-wearing, drink-addled, drug-taking granny-bashers.
The reality is that, while a minority of [...]

Mary Brett, writing as a spokesperson for Europe Against Drugs, in the BMJ says:
A strong prevention campaign supported by the whole population can work. In 1979 the “Just say no” campaign started in the United States. By 1991 the 23 million drug users had been reduced to 14 million. Cocaine and cannabis use halved.  Surveys [...]