Drug Education News

Daily Star have a story about an art exhibition which features works by Pete Doherty:
Drugs charities and the art world are disgusted he has been given the sick show while in London’s Wormwood Scrubs.
George Ruston, from drug education charity Hope UK, said: “Anything that glamorises drug use does not help and, for some young people, [...]

KentOnline:
Children as young as nine are regularly drinking, according to a drink and drugs charity.
The Kenward Trust, based at Kenward House, Yalding near Maidstone, set up its Youth Outreach Teams 11 years ago and has been running an Alcohol Support Programme for young people for two years.

Classification makes the news in a number of papers, they all are agreed that the government are going to reclassify cannabis, and that the ACMD don’t share that assessment:

The Mirror - Gordon Brown in cannabis row snub
The Guardian - Call for science to rule on risk of illegal drugs
The Daily Telegraph - Gordon Brown to [...]

The Home Office have released a quarterly update on crime statistics:
Recorded drug offences for October to December 2007 increased by 20 per cent compared with the same period in 2006. Recent increases in drug offences are largely associated with increased police use of powers to issue cannabis warnings.
Context from the BBC, and again here where [...]

Times & Star:
HEALTH chiefs in Cumbria have vowed to crack down on alcohol abuse as almost a third of 14 to 17-year-olds admitted to buying booze in the last week.
Compared to the national average more Cumbrian underage teens are binge drinking and buying alcohol and more than twice the number of 14 and 15-year-old boys [...]

Re-Solve have a new resource:
Re-Solv is proud to present “Toxic Agents” - the most detailed resource for primary school age children the we have ever produced.
Toxic Agents has been put together by Re-Solv’s Youth Liaison Officer, Kay Carter, following research and consultation with primary school teachers and students.

On Tuesday I went to visit one of the Forum’s newest members, Drugsline.
Drugsline deliver drug education in over 52 schools and youth facilities, to over 32,000 children a year.  Predominantly this is in London and Essex, but during the course of my time with them I also heard about visits to schools in Hertfordshire and [...]

The Independent takes a look at what students at Exeter University have done to try and reduce the harm that alcohol can do following the tragic death of one of their fellows.
All sports clubs run through Exeter’s Students’ Guild (the students’ union) now have to sign a code of conduct saying they won’t carry out [...]

Rochdale Online:
The campaign will see leaflets distributed to children through schools and telling them of the dangers of legal and illegal drugs. The newly designed literature introduces two characters, Groovy Grace and Cool Carl, who have advice for children with how to deal with drugs and the effect they can have.

The Telegraph:
A school has come under attack from parents after some students were allowed to smoke with staff supervision during a trip abroad.
The incident happened while more than 200 students were on a skiing trip to Austria during the Easter holidays. A group of 16 students, aged 15 and 16, were allowed to smoke while [...]