The Drug Education Forum has published its response to the government’s consultation on the next drug strategy.
In responding we say:
In our view drug education should enable children and young people to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to appreciate the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, promote responsibility towards the use of drugs and relate these to their own actions and those of others, both now and in their future lives.
We believe that schools and other educational settings need a strong and consistent message that the government sees the delivery of effective drug education as being a critical part of the strategy. We know that the delivery of drug education in schools is improving , but it is clear to us that schools are getting mixed messages about what is effective.
Too much of the political and media debate about drugs in schools since the publication of the government?s guidance on drugs and schools has been on the issue of drug testing in schools. We have no evidence that this is an effective approach for schools to take . We would call for a considered debate on the evidence we have of what is effective and where the gaps are in our knowledge and to develop policies and messages for schools and other educational settings which draw on that consensus.
The full response can be downloaded from here.
19 October 2007