The Drug Education Forum was invited to meet with Conservative Party candidate for the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson on Friday last week. The meeting was hosted by Don Shenker, CEO of Alcohol Concern, at their office.
Stephen Burgess was our representative in his role as Vice Chair of the Drug Education Forum. This is his report of the event:
The meeting included other representatives from Alcohol Concern, Turning Point, Hampshire Council Drugs Programme and a couple of other drug and alcohol rehab. agencies, plus (as observers) reporters from London press and local radio, Telegraph, Independent and even a New York public radio station, but no TV. Everything was recorded and on the record.
Key policy points that emerged were:
- Appointment of an Alcohol Czar to oversee alcohol strategy in the capital.
- Full support for alcohol education in schools and a public health campaign focused on alcohol.
- Ring fencing of money to focus on alcohol issues.
- Using London Development Agency and the Mayor’s Fund to seed corn and help facilitate public, private, voluntary sector partnerships to tackle and fund drug and alcohol prevention through campaigns and education.
- Try to even out health spending across London to address disparities between, for example, Kensington and Tower Hamlets.
- Heavy focus on parental responsibility while accepting many need help with parenting skills themselves.
- Heavy focus on diversionary strategies through youth activity projects promoted by the vol. sec. to excite children in ways that didn’t involve drugs and alcohol.
- Ban alcohol from the underground ‘on Day One’ and look into a similar ban on busses.
- Develop a league table measuring success of boroughs in tackling alcohol related issues. Name and shame those at the bottom and particularly support those taking action against retailers for underage selling.
It’s worth noting that while the meeting was focused on alcohol, he seemed genuinely surprised by the evidence we all presented that children don’t make the same distinction between legal and illegal drugs that people of his/our generation do. As a result the parlance changed during the course of the meeting from alcohol to drugs.
Filed under: Conservatives, Drug Education Forum Members
i AM SO GLAD THAT Boris is taking such a responsible and proactive attitude to the drink and drug problem.
Sian Berry’s manifesto advocates the legalisation of ecstasy and she wants “Dutch style coffee shops to sell cannabis”. Is she out of her mind?
When attending a meeting where Nicky Gavron was one of the speakers, I reminded her that Ken had allied himself with Sian and had done a deal with her, so where did he stand on the above proposals? Nicky did not answer my question.
A member of the Green Party confirmed that the proposals were Green Party policy, but I said that I wanted Nicky to tell me Ken’s position on this. ONCE AGAN, SHE DUCKED THE QUESTION.
I find this extremely worrying.