SERIES: DRUGS UNCOVERED: THE COUNSELLOR

Simon Leigh: 'I Talk to Them Like Adults. It's One of the Reasons
Schools Invite Me In'

Simon Leigh is an addiction counsellor accredited by the Federation of
Drug and Alcohol Professionals who also gives talks in schools on
drugs (www.addictiontherapy.org.uk)

Sometimes it's scary just how much children know at such a young age.
I talk to them like adults. It's one of the reasons schools invite me
in. Unlike parents or teachers I don't say: 'You mustn't do this'. I
just give them the facts, but in a way that leaves them wondering why
anyone would want to take drugs.

The questions I'm asked can be very telling. My talks are very
interactive and I can usually clock who has addiction in the family or
an alcoholic parent just by the questions the kids ask.

I also talk to the parents separately after school. I will give them
the same talk that I gave their kids so they know what they're
learning. Most parents haven't got a clue about drugs. Many will have
tried drugs 20 or 30 years ago and some may be doing it today - coke
or the odd joint - but for most of the parents I talk to the drugs
today are very different to the drugs they knew years ago.

A lot of parents are in absolute denial about addiction happening to
their children, but it is a mental illness and it doesn't discriminate
between age, sex, race or religion. It will affect anybody.

When you tell the parents that people can be genetically predisposed
to addiction some of them go white. You can tell who might have it in
the family.

Many people want me to teach them how to be parents. I won't do it.
They'll ask, 'Do I let them smoke dope at home?' That's a decision
they have to make for themselves. Personally I wouldn't condone the
use of drugs by my kids in my house, but I can't tell parents how to
deal with their kids.

During my work as a counsellor, I have been amazed by what some of the
kids are up to. I once saw a 14-year-old boy who had been injecting
heroin since he was 10 and another girl who was turning tricks with
her mother from the age of 12 in order to fund her mother's habit.
There's some sick stuff going on.

Many parents ask: how would I know if my child is doing drugs? I tell
them what to look for - lethargy, erratic behaviour, insomnia - but
when it comes to cannabis, I tell them not to panic. There is a
correlation between smoking cannabis and mental-health problems, but
the percentage is small.

I'm also looking to educate the kids so that if someone hands them a
brown powder and says, 'Here's some cannabis - try this,' they'll know
it might actually be heroin, because if you've never done it before
you won't know. However, I never glamorise the use of drugs.

One reason for talking to kids is to try to rid this country of the
stigma surrounding addiction. It's an illness affecting around 10 per
cent of the population and so should not have any shame attached to
it.

The fact that the kids are looking at a real-life addict gives me a
lot of credibility. I've been in recovery for cocaine addiction for
several years so I use my own experiences when I give talks.