Drug Education in School.. your opinion?

hey guys..
i was actually just wondering how most bluelighters feel about Drug Education in Schools, specifically in the primary system. Most parents, politicians etc. etc. have all these opinions about the subject but i thought who better to give their opinion than the users themselves.
Any opinions will be appreciated, and i'm curious to hear some interesting responses
Love and magic to you all...
P.S see all you Melbournians at Gatecrasher
"Become who you are" Nietzsche.

my little bro is getting drug education at school and his teacher keeps telling him about what ppl on xtc "do". All abt the medic n the vicks inhalers, glostix, chuppa chups etc etc. I have no idea how this is relevant but i had a good larf.
The drug "education" i got at school was absolutely shite, i dont think they really taught us anything, except not to take drugs cos u'll get addicted or die... I look at wat little bro is learning 5 years later n they're telling him the exact same shit. How drugs fuck u up n how u can die from taking ecstacy. But i guess it'll be this way until public perceptions n government/school attitudes change.
But i guess ppl (myself included) dont want primary school n youngish high school kids doing e's n other gear.
The drug education ppl in school r getting isnt really accurate, but its neccessary because its stopping kids getting into drugs when they're too young.
Peace
rc1n

Yeah I'm sort of glad my parents told me nightmare stories of what drugs do to you.. they feel good to start but you end up addicted and you can die.
Because it did stop me from wanting anything to do with it at a really young age.
The things they tell you in primary / secondary school are what public perceptions are.. which are false or innacurate but what do you expect? The general public's perceptions are false / inaccurate.. so what they teach the younger generation will be the same.
I reckon they should be giving music education in primary / secondary school though..! My little bro at the age of 15 is a little smartass.. last night I had some trance going while I was using the computer in his room, and he came in on the phone and he says to his friend.. "Heh heh, listen to the kind of music my brother is listening to.." and holds the phone to the speaker..
I didn't say anything.. I just smiled and shook my head and thought to myself, "Just you wait and see.. by the time you're my age you'll have changed your tune - just like I did."

I guess its good in that way. If you tell young uns the truth... a few of them may actually be incouraged to experiment with drugs at a younger age.
I didn't really start using drugs till I was exposed to them and able to think for myself, rather than take what I was taught by teachers and peers as gospel.
I don't think the kiddies should be on the A class or any class, till they have that ability to consider decisions, prospects and ideals themselves.
However once they are, there is a real need to educate them in a true and practical manner, as opposed to propaganda. I didn't know much until till I educated myself on the inet. Before then I was going blind, eating drugs of any sort from anyone I trusted a little. Back then it was not so bad, but with all the shyte out and about nowaday... I wouldn't want to be without my illicit education.

I agree with the other posts here...
Misinformation is indeed a bad thing (after all, that's how MDMA was made a Schedule I substance after all), but at the same time if it discourages younger teens from trying chems until they can make an intelligent, informed decision, then so be it...

Drug education can be carried out without reverting to misinformation or lies - this is what my job is all about. While I've nver been asked to do primary schools i have done a number of talks to low secondary. I generally don't get asked back, but the students love it.
There are a few key things - you can start at a very young age looking at things like panadol and medicines and that there are ways that you can use them and they're helpful, but if you use them in other ways they can harm. This provides a really good base which educators can work on - continuing to explain factually, also looking at the risks, and the ways they can be minimised.
Through work I believe I have learnt that one of the major factors which leads to harmful use is poor self-esteem and low sense of self-worth. If you don't see any reason to live there's sure no reason to use your drugs safely. So I do a lot of work with art and expression, and always pay people for their time to try and build that. But if its instilled at a young age then its much easier for people to make decsisions when older, which can include depndency if that is right for them at that point in their lives.
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hmmm, I really had to think about this because I dont know where I stand. Me myself, I would like to know the truth but im not sure if I want youngins knowing the absolute truth ie: that its dangerous, but its hella fun.
I think they should keep peddling out the mis-information and scare-tactics to primary school kids, then lay the truth on hard and fast as soon as you get to year 7. See, I was one of the most nieve kids on the block. Smoking cigeretts was something I wouldnt even think about. I didnt know what a bong was until I was at the end of year 7 and as for grade A's I didnt even know what they were except that herion made you a junkie, so the propaganda that was fed to me was succesful, but I grew up in a very nice suburb (high-middle class white trash) and none of the "drug shit" went around.
It was when I got to high school that the other kids said "lets go smoke a joint" and I was like "wtf is a joint??" well... it went spiraling from there but I didnt try Class A's until very late last year so I think drug education is very succesuful in Australia. Its the people/culture you emmerse yourself in that makes the critical difference, then if you are the type of person to educate yourself then you will find answers!
But if it wernt for the internet, most of us would be fucked and taking a lot of nasty shit!!
[This message has been edited by Mr. Horse (edited 19 September 2000).]

Well I think it all boilds down to if there is really a need to educate kids in Primary school about drugs. Are they in a high risk groups that requires that such education be employed. Many factors make up a high risk group including factors such as location - not only location as far as suburb, but locations within suburbs.
It's a tough call because on one hand education at that age may teach the young person to respect drugs and leave them alone until they are mature enough. On the other hand it may spark curiosity to experiment with these drugs. Knowing this how do you decide what's the right thing to do. Times are certainly changing, back when I was in primary school (shit I sound like my old man) it was all cartoons, sport and collecting Kiss cards hehehhee. Now kids in the Mill Park area are smoking and dealing pot in Primary school - fuck call me old but I almost fell off my chair when I heard this - where has the innocence of young kids gone?
So in this particular primary school that I know of there is definately a need for some action to be taken - what sort of action? Well this is where a school has to be cautious - it's not only a matter of providing the right balance of information - we have to consider and realise we do not live in a perfect world. A school has to also consider the consequences of it's actions - it has to answer to the government and the parents.
Being a parent myself - I certainly would not like my child during his years at primary school being associated with drugs or having any knowledge of them. I guess the tough question for me is if he does become exposed to them in some way, what cousre of action is the right one. As a parent I tend to lean on the scare tatic for kids that young. They are way too young to fully understand nor do they need to know the concepts of responsible drug use. At that innocent time in life let them continue believing drugs are danegrous and only losers touch them - unless circumstances dictate otherwise.
In High School - well this is where drug use for young people becomes very real and shock tatics are increasingly becoming a waste of time in achieving their objectives. I honestly believe that young people need to be treated with respect and not lied to. A good balance of information and harm minimisation is in order. The more you tell someone they shouldn't do it the more the they will - I know it's a generalisation, but in my work in the Youth Work field, a generalisation the rings true all too often. I was oftened spurred on to smoke cigerettes by the fact that my parents told me not to. Young people start a journey of discovery, a journey of who am I, where do I belong and part of the journey is standing on one's own two feet. Young people like to think they are independent and can make their own decisions - so give them this respect and arm them with the right information and the skills to use it.
Again this is the view of a parent
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"Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, doesn't try it on" - Billy Connolly

I went to Ivanhoe Grammar (can I use names Mods?? ) and for a very expensive private school, we had absolutely no drug education whatsoever. If we did have any sort of program, it must have been very early, like year 7 or 8, but come senior school (yrs 9-12), it was if drugs weren't an issue!?!
I'm not really annoyed that there wasn't any form of education, but I'm sure some sort of info would have helped out a few guys that went down the wrong road too early... Kids these days ARE going to try drugs, and the amount of users is without a doubt going to increase, so I don't think there's any point in saying that "drugs are bad and they'll kill you", instead they should tell kids the exact effects without being bias and what long-term use will do to to you.
Education is going to be more effective than prevention.
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I think of my life as a series of sketches; each one funnier than the last

Drugs are bad mkay!
That is exactly what is taught in school, summed up perfectly.
IN year 8 everyone had to do a report on drugs. I happened to get xtc. All the information i was given was media hype about how this drug kills. Even stuff about overdosing on xtc by just taking one pill. Now i do not see how this would happen. However as i did not know better i believed most of it and just BS on for the report we had to do and the teacher was happy cause it was payin out the drug. I was happily disinterested in it at the time and i am glad now because i think it would have been to young to start. (I also dont think i was paying much atention to what i said or read, just pleasing the teacher).
It can be good the system misinforms kids as they can be put off. Although by saying drugs are bad mkay, can also cause kids to rebel and use them as its in their nature a lot of the time.
Im just glad i found out the truth later.

I dont think they should use scare tactics at school, coz thats basically why our perants are so nieve about it. We are the lucky ones who see thru the BS but what about the rest of the population? It does nothing but contribute to deaths, ignorace and boost a politicians votes when he comes down hard and fast on some poor junkie or dealer.
Wouldnt it be cool if they had a candyman come to your school and offer you weak drugs so you can try them in a safe environment? Just so you know what they are, what they do and get all the information first hand. After that its still the individuals choice if they wanna do it or not, but at least they know now not to do it regularly. Most kids that take it have the 'well l am going to die sooner or later' mentality and just go out their to fuck themselves up. Not good.
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"Your understanding of life extends as far as the questions your prepared to ask."

We had to do a survey for someone from the education department on drug education (absolutely trashed) and although it was mainly about pot we talked about other drugs and basically what we told her was (what I consider) the bluelight motto KNOW not NO!
She loved it & said she would really push that point...
jaX*

Another point worth mentioning is that not all families are the same, and not all parents work the same ways. Obviously as all people are different and are brought up in different circumstances, so too are people taught parenting in vastly different ways, by their own parents example, and by the example set by the parents of their peers. I have seen children as young as grade 4 and 5 being caught at primary school with marijuana in the area where I live (note: a long way from suburban melbourne), and I believe that the children aren't in possession of these small quantities of drugs with the intention of sale or consumption, but merely as an ego thing, to big note to their friends. Maybe they swiped the choof from their brother/sister, or maybe they got it from mum/dad - somehow they got it, and I will almost guarantee that children this young are not procuring from a dd, it would almost certainly be in-house. The socioeconomic climate in the area I'm talking about is about middle class to slightly lower. In general I would estimate that the education of the average parent couple in the area would be high school level. It almost seems as if the influence of a few members of so-called 'bad' families can force children to deal with issues that make them grow up quickly.
I think that drug education often starts at home, long before it's brought up in schools. How many children are witness to family members becoming inebriated at celebration events, and learn of the social effects of alcohol in this way? What about the same age children growing up in a family where rather than having a few tinnies after work, the parents have a couple of cones? It would be hypocritical of this kind of parent to feed their child media drug-propaganda, but by the same token they may not wish to see their children using until much older (one would hope).
I'm not sure if I can wrestle the above into a coherent argument or statement right now - at this stage I'll leave it as a collection of other ideas to throw in to the mix.
BigTrancer

Thanks everyone for all your replies..
i must fess up though, i did have a motive for posting this thread. I'm doing Primary teaching at Uni, and as part of my Health assessment task i'm writing about drug Ed in schools... your opinions and beliefs have been valuable..
Thanks again..
See you down at the Brunswick st Festival
oh yeah and *bump