SHOCK DRUGS LESSONS 'DO NOT WORK'

Schools can decide what to teach Parents of other youngsters who have died
from drug misuse have welcomed the decision to include photographs of a dead
21 year old in an educational video.

But professionals working in the field of drugs education are more
sceptical.

Roger Howard, chief executive of the pressure group Drugscope, said his
heartfelt thoughts went out to the parents of Rachel Whitear, who died from
heroin use.

If the video saved only one life it would be a good thing - but research
from around the globe showed that shock tactics did not work.

"It's understandable that parents and teachers want images like this to be
shown to highlight the potentially fatal effects of drugs, but there is
little evidence that such shock tactics actually work in changing behaviour.

Availability of treatment

"What we have recognised over many years is that we have got to give young
people sustained drug education right from age five until they are 16.

"And that is not only about illegal drugs that's about alcohol, tobacco and
medicines, things like that."

But the other lesson was that some young people would become addicted to
heroin and the government could do more in the way of harm reduction to help
them.

Only on Thursday a report from the Audit Commission had said that in some
parts of England, heroin addicts had to wait four or five months before they
could get treatment, he said.

"We need to make sure that young people like Rachel get access to help that
they desperately need."

What schools do

Late in 2000, the year Rachel Whitear died, the government set targets for
every secondary school and 80% of primary schools in England to have an
anti-drugs education policy in place by the year 2003.

In Devon, a few miles from where Rachel died, the Schools Health Education
Unit in Exeter says there is no clear evidence on what schools actually do
because it is left to their own discretion.

The unit's research manager, David Regis, said health education was not
compulsory and was rarely given more than a passing reference in Ofsted
reports.

"There is a professional view that 'shock horror' tactics are not always the
best way to introduce youngsters to sorting out their attitudes to illegal
drugs - or anything else for that matter," he said.

"But there is a lot of natural sympathy for this approach. The burden of
wanting to do something about the problem can be quite fierce and it seems
such an obvious thing to do."

Saying no

But the recommended way to teach children about drugs was through discussion
and the presentation of facts.

"It's not just knowledge that determines what you do," said Dr Regis.

"You may know that all sorts of things are bad for you but you do them for
other reasons - speeding is an example."

An important focus of health education therefore involves building up
children's personalities and self-esteem.

"So they have the confidence to know what they think and the social skills
to put it into practice - so that if someone does put pressure on them to
behave in a risky way they are able to say 'this isn't for me'."

Dr Regis points out that there are problems with that approach, too - the
pressure of wanting to keep up with other people can be felt keenly even by
adults, let alone youngsters.

"My friends are what keep me going, not the enemy I want to resist," he
said.