Drug Education News

1. Peter O'Loughlin

   29 November, 2007 at 2:15 pm

   The advantage of user groups in this type of situation is the fact that they have ‘walked the walk’, and are able to speak with knowledge, rather than learning on alcoholand other drugs. (AOD)

   It would however be a disadvantage if the ex user is merely abstinent, or has in fact achieved sobriety in the sense that he/she have put their ‘own house in order, and become self supporting members of their community. In short, they are now part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.

   There is a tendency to judge a persons suitablity for this sort of activity by the length of time they have been absinent. This somewhat arbitary attempt is flawed from the point of view that the road to recovery is an unpredicatable and ongoing process, and is dependent on a number of factors, not the least of which is the extent of the mental, physical and spiritual damage, the individual may have inflicted on himself.

   Both AA and NA point out there those too “with grave emotional and mental disorders”, but they also can recover, providing they have the capacity to be self honest. Both groups also urge those with such disorders to seek professional help, as indeed Bill W the cofounder of AA did when he consulted Carl Jung.

   Within my own experience I have encountered ex users and alcoholics who with 12 months of abstinence have done considerable work on themselves and have made considerable more progress towards recovery, than others who have been around for several years

   If you approach the General Service Offices of AA or NA, they will be able to advise you of any contacts in your area who are willing and able to undertake this type of work, and further advise you on the relevant information sheets available.

2. Jenny McWhirter

   30 November, 2007 at 12:23 pm

   There are several obstacles to the use of ex-drug users in drug education in schools and in the informal education sector. There are, of course, advantages for the ex-user, who have a genuine desire to put something back into society, or to support the efforts to deter others from drug use. The obstacles, as far as I can see, are with respect to the quality of the involvment and its sustainability. A whole school, comprehensive, multi-component approach to PSHE is, as we can see from the process results of the Blueprint project, extremely difficult to manage, so any contribution from an external provider needs to be sustainable if it is to add value.

   There are more serious concerns about the content and quality of the inputs from former users, however. It seems that the most promising approaches to drug education (including prevention and harm reduction) are based on social influencing and normative approaches. In my experience, the use of ex-drug users to give talks about their experiences does not fit with this approach at all. At best they give the impression that the problems with substance misuse are far greater than they really are.

   I have been part of a programme for a large secondary school where an ex-user had instilled in the Year 12 and 13 students a belief that they would all use illegal drugs during their life time, that most would suffer addiction and that they would all have serious social and health problems as a result. None of these ‘facts’ are true. However, neither staff nor students were in a position to challenge this, and indeed accepted this information as self evidentently true because of its source. These kinds of inputs just serve to normalise students’ and teachers’ perceptions of drug use, and make those who abstain or use infrequently feel in the minority, which they are not.

   If ex -drug users are to become part of an effectivce aproach to universal drug education in our schools and youth provision, they need to understand these complex models of human behaviour and incorporate them into their approach.

   So am I against all ex-drug users working in schools? No. But I do think we need a way to incorporate their involvement in a way which ensures both quality and sustaianbility. One possibility is to invite ex users to work with those who understand the most promising approaches and then record their inputs onto dvd in the form of talking heads, so that they can be used to good effect in more schools and on a more sustainable basis. This may not have the immediate ‘impact’ of seeing a real life person pour out their heart to 200 young people in a school hall, but it will fit better with what we know can work, if we have the resources to deliver it.

3. Simon Bull

   30 November, 2007 at 4:20 pm

   I work with an organization that provides drug and alcohol awareness and education services, using people who have been through addiction to deliver this work.
   I believe that there are many benefits in this work both to the recipients and to the people delivering the workshops, dramas etc. It is important that it is a group and not an individual that presents to an audience and that the group has clear, strong guidelines in place.
   Some research has been carried out on Vita Nova and if Mark would like to contact me we can discuss its suitability.

1. 1 Ex-users in Drug Education « Drug Education News Pingback on Mar 10th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

   [...] There’s some interesting comments in a post I did back in November last year on the appropriateness of ex-users in drug education here. [...]

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