Drug Education News

Here’s how The Guardian report the EMCDDA report I looked at yesterday:
Evidence of a growing pre-teen drug problem in Britain emerged yesterday with research showing that one in seven children have tried cannabis before the age of 13.The study, reported by the EU’s drug agency, says there has been an explosion in the number [...]

The Press Association report the views of  Howard Roberts at the ACPO conference:
Drugs education is a “postcode lottery”, a top police officer has claimed.
Nottinghamshire Police Deputy Chief Constable Howard Roberts, vice chair of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) drugs committee, said more needed to be done to prevent young people using drugs.
Speaking at [...]

It’s always useful to get a perspective from beyond the English speaking about how the issues for young people and drugs are tackled. So, I’m grateful to Peter from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) for sending me a link to part of their annual report on the state of [...]

Via They Work For You:
Baroness Gould of Potternewton asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether the funding for the healthy schools programme will continue to be ring-fenced and will be included in the public service agreements for health and well-being. [HL291]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Lord [...]

My presentation to Alcohol Concern’s annual conference was reported in this week’s Drink and Drug News.
As far as I can tell its not online so I’ve scanned the article and if you click on it you should be able to read it.

The Metro cover the change of position on cannabis by the Association of Chief Police Officers, who now would like to see it returned to being a class B drug:
Humberside Chief Constable Tim Hollis claimed there were ‘persuasive arguments’ for the U-turn.
He told an Acpo drugs conference in Cardiff that young people were ‘confused’ about [...]

The BBC on government plans to extend parenting courses:
The government is about to launch a £30m training academy for professionals in England who work with families with problems.
Ministers aim to make a parenting course available to anyone who wants one, the hope being this will result in fewer children veering into anti-social behaviour.
Any parent knows [...]

The Guardian carries a story from the Press Association:
Gordon Brown today gave his backing to a campaign aimed at cracking down on sale of alcohol to underage drinkers.The prime minister said the government was keen to ensure a “coordinated” effort to tackle underage drinking and binge-drinking among the young.
He was speaking as the Home [...]

It seems to me that there is an increasing recognition about the need to ensure that parents play a significant role in drug prevention initiatives.  So I was interested when I saw the Pushing Back website promoting the US government’s online approach to engaging parents:
ONDCP’s Parent Chronicles initiative strives to help parents better understand their [...]

The Home Office have published the Blueprint programmes delivery and practitioner reports and a helpful executive summary of both.
Blueprint was a Home Office funded drug education research programme involving 29 secondary schools in 4 LEA areas; 23 are adopting the programme while 6 continue with their existing drug education programme to act as [...]