RADIO: Thurs 18/5 9am, ABC National, Recreational drug use

I recommend listening in to this program tomorrow morning, and I believe the ABC website offers mp3 / downloads for those who can't make that time. Basic premise of Parker's normalisation thesis is that use of illicit drugs (e.g., cannabis, ecstasy, methamphetamine, and cocaine) in social contexts has increasingly become part of normal life experience for young adults since the mid 1990s; and this needs to be reflected in our laws, policies and programs if we are to make life safer for people who use drugs.

Professor Howard Parker from Manchester University will be interviewed live on ABC Radio National's Life Matters program tomorrow, Thursday 18 May 2006 at 9.00am. He will discuss drug use in the United Kingdom and the "normalisation of adolescent recreational drug use". Ms Jennifer Johnston from Turning Point Alcohol & Drug Centre will be interviewed alongside Professor Parker in order to provide an Australian perspective. For more information, including local frequencies, please visit http://www.abc.net.au/rn/.

Both Professor Parker and Ms Johnston will be delivering keynote addresses at next week's, 5th International Conference on Drugs & Young People (24 - 26 May 2006, Randwick, New South Wales). For more information on this conference please visit www.adf.org.au; email. [email protected] or tel. (03) 9278 8137.

Click to expand...

I looked up the mp3... here it is:

lifemats_20060518.mp3

The segment is at the start and runs to 17 minutes 10 seconds.

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Governments spend millions of dollars on anti-drug campaigns but how effective are they? Surveys show that most young people have tried illicit drugs and a signifigant proportion use drugs regularly. Cannabis and alcohol are the two most common followed by a new generation of party drugs: ecstasy, speed and "ice".

Recreational drug use is seen as a "normal" part of youth culture so drug experts now favour campaigns to minimize the potentially harmful effects rather than "zero tolerance". But can you promote safe drug use along with an anti-drugs message and is our favourite legal drug, alcohol, creating more health problems than the illicit ones?
Guests

Jennifer Johnston
Research Fellow, "Turning Point", a drug treatment and education and research centre in Fitzroy, Melbourne

Professor Howard Parker
British drug and alcohol expert, Emeritus Professor in Applied Social Science, Law School, Manchester University, Britain.

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Source: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2006/1641017.htm