10 Sep 2010
2% of under 18s say they have sold drugs
I've come across a Home Office published report from 2008 about young people's (10 to 25) involvement in anti-social behaviour and crime that somehow I'd not seen before.
There is some focus on drug issues and they suggest that 3% of young people admit to selling drugs.
Older young people - 18 to 25 - are twice as likely (4%) to admit to selling drugs as the younger group (2%), and the survey found fewer than 0.5% of under 13 year olds had sold drugs.
The report goes on to say:
Within offence categories, repeat offending was particularly common for selling drugs. Among the three per cent of young people who said they had sold drugs in the last 12 months, 82 per cent had done so more than once, with 32 per cent reporting doing so six or more times.
Download the report here.
10 Sep 2010
Intervention delivered by school staff successfully lowers drinking rates in ‘at risk’ children
The Drug Education Forum has been fortunate enough to have heard from Patricia Conrod a couple of times talking about the research she led in this country.
As regular readers will remember the approach was based on identifying young people with particular personality types which have been associated with substance misuse.
There has now been a further paper which looks at the results from the last trial which saw the programme delivered by teachers rather than psychologists.
The Institute of Psychiatry have some of the detail and say:
Reporting on the efficacy of the intervention at six months, author and Trial Co-ordinator Maeve O’Leary-Barrett said “Receiving an intervention significantly decreased the likelihood of drinking in the six months following - there was a 40% reduction in drinking rates in the...
09 Sep 2010
Does stigmatising problem drug users work in preventing drug use?
The UKDPC have been looking at the stigmatisation of problem drug users. One of the chapters looks at the views of young people.
On scare tactics they say:
Many attempts have been made to prevent children from offending, drug use or coming to harm, through scaring them about the possible extreme consequences associated with adolescent risk behaviours. Pictures and videos are frequently deployed, depicting powerful and often terribly sad stories concerning drug addiction, road accidents, death and disaster. They frequently involve personal accounts from ex-drug users and criminals – and some have involved trips to prison (Lloyd, 1995). While such approaches are popular with children and may well be a useful developmental experience for offenders and exusers, there is little or no evidence that ‘scare straight’...
09 Sep 2010
Research for Recovery: A Review of the Drugs Evidence Base
The Scottish Government have published a review of the evidence to inform their drug strategy. This is what it has to say about prevention and education:
There is a strong link between problem drug use and deprivation, suggesting tackling poor housing and employment could have a positive impact on recovery from drugs in Scotland, although it is also important to review other factors such as mental health, recreational use and peer networks.
Research evidence on the efficacy of drug prevention initiatives is lacking. More risk factors and the absence of protective factors increase the likelihood of a young person developing a drug problem. However, there is a research gap around whether identifying and targeting vulnerable young people is an effective method of reducing substance misuse.
Certain drug education models...
08 Sep 2010
Mixed review for Social Norms
The AERC have a paper commissioned by DrinkAware looking at the evidence for a social norms approach having an impact on drinking amongst university students in the UK.
The paper starts by pointing out that there is little hard evidence from which to work and that much of what there is comes from the US (and therefore may not be applicable in the UK). As a result the conclusions that are drawn are mixed, for example the report says:
There is a consensus amongst experts that students misperceive drinking norms. However, simply changing these misperceptions will not necessarily result in positive changes in student drinking behaviour. Further, there is some concern about the possible faddish nature of social normative interventions.
The paper goes on to argue that there needs to be rigorous research into whether the approach can...
08 Sep 2010
5 Lessons from Canada
Thanks to Mentor International for bringing this to my attention.
The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse's newsletter has details of a meta-analysis of school based cannabis prevention programmes which is shortly to be published in Health Education & Behavior.
The article says the researchers have drawn 5 lessons from their analysis which they believe enhance programme effectiveness:
Longer program duration (i.e., more than 15 sessions)
Interactive participation between student and facilitator
Facilitation by individuals who are not classroom teachers
Targeting high school rather than middle school students
Based on multiple prevention models
The researchers suggest that the success of non-teacher deliverers is "likely [to be] the result of...
08 Sep 2010
Is being from a rich family a risk factor?
This paper suggests that young people with wealthy parents are at greater risk of substance misuse.
The results from this study indicate that higher SES [socio-economic status] in adolescence, as measured by parental education and household income in adolescence, is associated with higher rates of substance use, particularly binge drinking, marijuana use and cocaine use, in early adulthood.
They conclude:
As previous evidence shows that students with more spending money might be more likely to engage in substance use into adulthood, access to allowances and other forms of spending money may be issues that parents can address if they are concerned with the possibility of substance abuse among their children.
08 Sep 2010
Drug Strategy Consultation
The government are carrying out a short – 6 week – consultation on their new drug strategy. The consultation closes on 30 September.
Vision and Aims
They explain that the vision is to “prevent drug taking, disrupt drug supply, strengthen enforcement and promote drug treatment with the focus on enabling people to become free of their addictions, including alcohol, to recover fully and contribute to society.”
They say the aims are:
Greater ambition for individual recovery whilst ensuring the crime reduction impact of treatment.
Actions to tackle drugs being part of building the “Big Society”.
A more holistic approach with drugs issues being assessed and tackled alongside other issues such as alcohol abuse, child protection, mental health, employment and housing.
Budgets...
23 Aug 2010
Drug Strategy Consultation
The Home Office has now launched a consultation period for the new Drug Strategy. Targeted organisations are invited to share their expertise and knowledge by submitting a consultation form. The consultation period ends 30 September 2010.
18 Aug 2010
Eric Carlin makes the case for a different approach to drug control
Eric, once of this parish, makes the case for reforming the government's approach to drug control.
Amongst the points he makes is an argument for making drug education compulsory:
But it seems to me that support to intervene early with evidence-based initiatives to prevent and reduce problematic drug use remains a low political priority. I have previously criticised the consensus reached by Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to abandon the last Government’s commitment to make drugs education compulsory in schools. It’s not all that it is needed but it could be a vital component which would help improve the quality and range of drugs education provision in schools. Young people themselves consistently ask for more and better drugs education, even where they have already begun experimenting with drugs. Although a...
16 Aug 2010
Children talking to ChildLine about parental alcohol and drug misuse
The NSPCC - a Drug Education Forum member - has published a report about the calls that Childline has received about drug and alcohol issues.
The report focuses on the drinking and drug use of the parents of callers to the helpline, pointing out how parental "alcohol and drug misuse seriously, and sometimes dangerously, impacts on children’s lives."
The charity had over 6,200 calls worried about parental drinking or drug use, this represented 4% of all the calls Childline received in 2008-09. Almost twice as many children were worried about drinking over drug use.
They also received about 3,000 calls where callers were counselled about their own drinking and a similar number of calls about where drug use was discussed.
“My mum drinks all the time and leaves me alone lots of times. I feel scared and lonely....
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About this blog
This blog tries to pick up relevant media and research stories about drug education. It mainly focuses on information in England as this is the geographical remit for the Drug Education Forum. We welcome comments that are on topic.Categories
Recent Posts
- Intervention delivered by school staff successfully lowers drinking rates in ‘at risk’ children
- 2% of under 18s say they have sold drugs
- Research for Recovery: A Review of the Drugs Evidence Base
- Does stigmatising problem drug users work in preventing drug use?
- Drug Strategy Consultation