EXPERT WARNS ON USE OF DRUG SCARE TACTICS

PARENTS who use scare tactics to keep their children from experimenting with
drugs leave their offspring more vulnerable to the lure of drugs, an expert
has warned.

Steve Harding, drugs education officer with the Eastern Health Board, said
continually presenting the worst case scenario lost parents all credibility
with their youngsters.

"We do it all the time. We say stop running on the stairs or you'll fall
down and break your neck. We never just say you'll scrape your elbow."

"The trouble is, when kids start experimenting with drugs and they don't
fall down dead instantly like they've been warned, but instead find they
enjoy it, they know somebody has lied to them. That somebody has lost all
credibility."

Mr Harding urged parents to be realistic in their discussions with their
children about drugs but said they should not even attempt a discussion
without first informing themselves.

"You need to give age relevant information so, of course, you don't tell a
child of seven there's anything good about drugs but if you have a
sophisticated teenage audience, you can be sure they know as much, and
probably more, about drugs than you do."

Mr Harding criticised the lack of a coordinated national approach to drugs
education. Schools were not all using the same drugs resource material and
the Gardai, parents and the media were all sending out different messages as
well, he said.

"If there are conflicting messages going out to young people, they will
reject them and they may reject the very one they should be taking in."

Mr Harding urged all schools to make use of the Department of Education's
drugs education material, and encouraged parents and schools to work in
tandem so that parents knew what their children were learning and what
approach was being taken to their drugs education.

Mr Harding was speaking at a conference on Young People and Drugs in Dublin
yesterday.

Another speaker, Midlands Health Board GP Coordinator, Jimmy Connolly,
called for more evaluation of education programmes. He said there was
nothing to show any of the programmes in use were having any effect or that
one programme was more successful than another.

Chris Murphy of Crosscare urged greater use of peer educators in drug
awareness programmes. Crosscare runs four programmes, in which teenagers and
young adults from areas badly affected by drugs are trained as mentors for
their peers.