EDUCATING CHILDREN ABOUT 'SOFT' AND 'HARD' DRUGS (4 LTEs)

From the Chief Executive of the Standing Conference on Drug Abuse

Sir, You report (January 2) that Keith Hellawell, the UK Anti-Drugs
Co-ordinator is questioning the effectiveness of education about drug use.

In the Government's White Paper, Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain,
published last April, ten Secretaries of State said:

Action will be concentrated in areas of greatest need and risk. All drugs
are harmful . . . And we will focus on those that cause the greatest damage
including heroin and cocaine.

It is simply not true to say that drug education has "not worked". It is
becoming clearer from research that drug education, delivered in the proper
context and in the appropriate way, has the potential to reduce drug
mis-use or at least to delay the onset of experimentation. This in turn is
more likely to reduce the prospect of a young person's drug use turning
into a more harmful and risky dependent use.

Following the White Paper, the Department for Education and Employment
published guidance to schools and the youth service on good practice and
drug education, Protecting Young People. In his foreword to the guidance,
Keith Hellawell said:

Many schools have already established their drug education policies. Many
examples of good practice have emerged. We need now to share this
information and en-courage all schools to take note of best practice . . .

As Mr Hellawell will be aware, the national curriculum is under review and
advisers and ministers are already considering the future role of personal,
social and health education, including drug education. This will
undoubtedly reinforce the need for a comprehensive programme to be
delivered to all young people from age five onwards.

Keith Hellawell and the Government need to recognise that throughout the
world there is no drugs education programme that can absolutely guarantee
to stop young people from ever taking drugs. If that is the sole objective,
then the policy will fail. The aim has to be to reduce the damage that
misuse of drugs can cause our young people.

Yours faithfully,

ROGER HOWARD, Chief Executive, Standing Conference on Drug Abuse, 32-36
Loman Street, SE1 0EE. ------------

>From Dr Richard Cookson

Sir, Keith Hellawell wants school-teachers to stop talking to British
children about "soft" drugs. But will this change in policy actually
succeed in preventing children from taking Ecstacy and cannabis? The truth
is that nobody knows - and we may be missing an excellent opportunity to
find out.

A rigorously designed scientific trial of this new drugs education campaign
should be carried out in a carefully selected region of Britain. Over time,
scientists could compare drug-taking behaviour in this region with
drug-taking behaviour in other regions. This would provide high-quality
scientific evidence about what form of drugs education campaign works best,
which would be of genuine and lasting value in dealing with the British
drugs problem.

A blanket change in drugs education policy across the whole of Britain will
not provide useful scientific evidence, because scientists will not be able
to disentangle the effects (if any) of Hellawell's policy from those of all
the other possible influences on drug-taking behaviour. And all the old
drugs arguments will continue, based not on scientific evidence but on the
usual heady mixture of gut instinct, ideology and the understandable
political pressures on the "drug czar" to be seen to be doing something.

Yours faithfully,

RICHARD COOKSON, LSE Health, London School of Economics, Houghton Street,
WC2A 2AE. r.cookson@lse.ac.uk -------------------------------

>From Father Jim Duffy

Sir, My confidence in drug czar Keith Hellawell took a knock when I read
that he was proposing that "reformed drug users could be used in more
schools to give talks to pupils". Does he not realise that impressionable
and immature, over-confident, young people, particularly those at greatest
risk, will take one look at a reformed user or addict lecturing them about
the dangers of drug use and say to themselves, "If he or she can kick the
habit, so could I."

Keep reformed users out of the schools. Users or addicts who have failed to
kick the habit and who are still not in control of their lives would be far
more effective.

Yours sincerely,

JIM DUFFY, 5 Park Road, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire WD3 1HU.
--------------------------------

>From Mr A. J. Turner

Sir, You report that "there will be no jobs . . . in the Army or the police
force" for those with a record of drug-related offences.

As the professionals who most in-fluence youngsters are teachers and youth
workers, perhaps that prohibition should be extended to them.

Your obedient servant,

ANDREW TURNER (Vice-Chairman, Conservative National Education
Society), 2 Northwood Place, Cowes, Isle of Wight PO31 7TN.