DRUG EDUCATION RESULTS QUESTIONED

Drug Education In Schools Will Be Reviewed After New Evidence Suggests
Recent Campaigns Using High Profile Drug Educators Has Failed

As parliament hears evidence on whether to decriminalise cannabis, Ministry
of Education papers obtained by the Sunday Star Times show little is known
about what drug education programmes are being used in schools.

Officials know little about how often the programmes are being used, at
what age or how many children are receiving them.

Providers of drug education also can't agree on effective approaches to the
problem with some trying to terrify children into rejecting drugs and
others favouring a more friendly approach.

"Current information on the national provision of drug education through
the services of drug education providers is piecemeal," a briefing to the
ministerial committee of drugs reads.

"There has been no independent, long-term evaluation of the effectiveness
of different types of drug education programmes in minimising drug related
harm."

Schools are free to select the programmes and materials they believe will
best meet the needs of their students, the papers say.

However, "the extent to which primary, intermediate and secondary schools
have implemented drug education policies and programmes in accordance with
legislation, the drug education guidelines and the health education
curriculum has not been established".

What has been established is a big question mark over recent attempts to
improve drug education.

In 1997 the Drug Education Development Project (DEDP) was set up, part of
which involved spending $3 million over three years on contracting four
drug education providers, among them Dare and Fade, to work in schools in
high cannabis growing areas such as Northland, Bay of Plenty and Gisborne.

An evaluation of this project by Auckland UniServices last year found it
didn't work.

"There is little evidence to suggest that the DEDP model was either
feasible or effective for the delivery of drugs education to improve young
people's decision not to use, delay, or reduce the misuse of drugs," the
evaluation reads.

An adjoining report, detailing a survey of 2600 children in Years 7 to 10
at 20 schools found 87% them had smoked a cigarette and drunk alcohol by
the age of 12, and 17% had smoked marijuana.

Only half of those in the first two years of high school had participated
in classroom activities that related to drugs and alcohol, the report found.

That was despite those years being associated with a sharp increase in
exposure to drugs and alcohol.

Education Minister Trevor Mallard told the Sunday Star Times that from
advice he had received "there is no evidence that we have got on top of
[drug education]."

"As one can see from the Auckland University research it might be the
opposite," he said.

"I think the reviews that have been done indicate that we might have spent
quite a lot of money over a period of time without necessarily cracking it."

The Education Review Office had been ordered to conduct a review of what
schools were providing in drug education, he said. The government would
then look at commissioning some research into what was "best practice".

"I think there is a general view that by getting drug education too far
outside the normal health and physical education [curriculum] … you can end
up creating something which is special and not well integrated," he said.

Education Ministry information suggests not all schools are implementing
that curriculum, which contains proposals on what should be taught about
drugs and alcohol. Some schools don't agree with its content.