FAKE drugs and needles will be shown to school pupils in Thundersley as part of a project to stop them taking illegal substances.
Boxes containing realistic replicas of popular street drugs, and associated paraphernalia, will be taken into schools as part of talks to warn children of the dangers of drugs.
Richard Keeler, schools worker from Thundersley Congregational Church, will use the props to add a new dimension to his work at King John and The Deanes School.
I’ve seen these boxes used a couple of times and I have to admit I’m torn between seeing that they can be a useful aid to starting conversations, and fearing that they limit those same conversations to a knowledge based curriculum.
How do others feel?
Filed under: drug education , Essex, fake drug boxes
I now tend to only use boxes for training purposes – too many workers use them as a novelty item. I’ve found using them in a session with young people can be counter productive as you are unable to ensure learning has taken place accross all the drugs in the box (ours has 24!!). You can therefore end up provoking curiosity and not really covering any drugs in meaningful detail, and most of the comments from yp is around how unreal they look, or how much will I sell them for! So your comment about only being able to cover knowledge is a valid one, but there are times when even that outcome can’t be achieved, as the learning tool gets in the way of the learning material
I agree with the above comment. The message we should be giving is “what one sees may not be what one gets” and developing understanding between, say, what is known about the content, use and consequences of the use of medicines V the street drug scene. We need to take the focus away from substances to decision-making. There are no good or bad, soft or hard drugs, but there are decisions, the consequences of which may be beneficial or harmful to an individual, wider circle of family, friends or community or the wider environment. Looking at drugs, real or facsimile, can provoke student interest and may well be counter productive. If imagery is important then using photographs, especially via a screen, can be a useful half-way house that also ensures that the student focus is on one drug at a time, not several.