Drug and Alcohol Findings has a very interesting article about scare tactics in drug education that Mike has pulled from the archive.
It draws on research from the Netherlands done in the 1970s which showed that the scare tactics that were prevalent then were more likely to lead to drug use than other forms of educational input.
In the control group 3.6% more pupils tried drugs between the baseline and later measures, a figure taken to approximate the ‘natural’ rate of increase. How had the lessons affected this progression? Despite their lessons, in the warning group twice the proportion of pupils went on to try drugs (7.3%). Those given ‘just the facts’ also showed an elevated incidence of drug use compared to the controls (4.6%). Only in the unfocused personal group did fewer pupils go on to try drugs (2.6%) than might have been expected if nothing had been done.
The paper describes the impact this research had on drug education here and elsewhere, ushering in the life-skills approach that is still at the heart of a lot of drug education today.
Filed under: drug education, research , Drug and Alcohol Findings
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