Missed opportunities : drugs and drugs education

Increasing public concern about the extent of adolescent drinking, smoking and illicit drug use has been addressed by a number of Government initiatives. The 1996 Task Force to Review Services for Drug Misusers has recommended the development of services specifically for young people, whilst the White Paper Tackling Drugs Together (1995) recommended that youth services and other agencies aim to reduce experimental behaviour amongst adolescents not yet using drugs, and to encourage cessation and abstinence among those already initiated. Furthermore, drugs education has become a statutory part of the Science Curriculum in both primary and secondary schools, a measure further supported by two guidance documents from the Department for Education and the School Curriculum Assessment Authority. Circular 4/95 Drug Prevention and Schools, (DfE, 1995) and Drug Education: Curriculum Guidance for Schools (SCAA/DfE), essentially set out the expected broader policy and curriculum framework for schools implementing drugs education beyond the minimum statutory requirements. These policy developments have come about as a consequence of the extensive literature which shows increasing levels of substance experimentation and misuse amongst young people throughout the United Kingdom, and reflect the view evident in the White Paper, that education is a central plank of drugs prevention. This paper describes the outcomes of a collaborative project in three London Boroughs.