Drug education in Australian Public state high schools

[Genetikal]

if a pregnant mother was to smoke cannabis, that baby would become either smaler or larger than normal and has cognative atention and memory problems for the rest of its life, i dont think scientists know whythey think it has something to do with hormone production, this could be the reason.


my brothers girlfriend smoked it during two different pregnancies, and both of them ended up being much smaller then usual, my father said my siblings and i were probably twice the size. and the eldest baby has and extremely low iq, i can tell by the way it acts, and rarely cries.

 

[blacktusk]

my health classes for high skool were balls. i obviously knew a bit more than the average non drug taking student because i took drugs, surfed erowid quite often in my highschool days and basically didnt take any old talk as fact(pill myths and such) and my teacher picked up on that


the teacher wud take my knowledge as showing off and i wud be made fun of as the dodgy stoner and to more knowing students(knowing as in they knew i took pillls), the pill head. this angered me deeply as i just wanted to educate peers around me and i got reticuled for it,

same shit happened to me. I got so into drugs that i forgot the stigma drugs carry to 'normal' people. Whenever i'd hear someone make a ridiculous remark in relation to almost any drug i'd immediately start ranting off at them. I started early, smoking buds every day through year 9 - 10. Started smashing back pingas, drinking every odd day. Left school at the end of year 10. Now all those people that called me a druggo or whatever the fuck are all ringing me to source out drugs. Needless to say i've told every one of them to go fuck themselves.

 

[ActiveA]

I remember punching cones at recess before our PE drug education lessons... Good times.

Now all those people that called me a druggo or whatever the fuck are all ringing me to source out drugs

I have this exact problem.

 

[footscrazy]

I went to a private girls' school and as far as I can remember we didn't get any drug education at all. I remember one woman, an ex alcoholic who came and spoke to us about drinking in year 11 - she was an excellent speaker but it still didn't change anything. Actually my mum told me recently (5 years later) that she went to my school and spoke to my teachers about her concern that I was on drugs (I was). She says they just dismissed it because they didn't want to deal with it. Prob worried it would ruin the 'reputation' of the school

 

[Streetsr]

Is this from the same people who say that you find glass and razor blades in pills?

 

[fortehlulz]

I was smoking cannabis before I was 14. By the time I got to drug education with our PE teacher in year 9, when we were asked to name a few drugs, I was naming shit our teacher had never heard of.

 

[dabb]

^Same as when i went through school, by the time they taught u bout it u knew how full of shit they were because of your own experience with weed that showed, for instance, that smoking tended to lead to much less trouble than drinking. To try and combat that they apparently have started 'drug ed' in primary school, trying to brainwash the kids before they have a chance to judge for themself.

What happened with that harm reduction pamphlet that was handed out in some NSW schools, i remember the media saying it was going to be withdrawn because by actually admitting some people will use drugs it 'sent the wrong message' ? Was that the beginning and end of harm reduction ever being taught in NSW schools? I'm sure lots of people here are really upset by this attitude and while the schools just keep pushing flat lines such as 'it's incredibly dangerous to ever mix drugs', which is disproved as soon a person is exposed to any drug use, then it's impossible to communicate important messages that need to be taught, such as not mixing alcohol and G .

I am interested to ask people if they think you can teach full on harm reduction course in a high school because i think they should, possibly with an opt out option, but to be totally honest i think harm reduction can create an interest in trying some of these drugs you keep hearing about. I remember a thread in drug culture where just about everyone replied they thought bluelight had generated an interest in trying more exotic drugs. You could teach it in yr12, when they're adults not children but those who drop out in early years may well be the most needful of harm reduction advice but teaching it in yr9 who don't want to fire desires for drugs in kids.

 

[Pistachio]

Went to multiple selective high schools and one of the worst most crime infested public high schools in Sydney. Can't for the life of me remember a single drug education class. One of the selective high schools was renowned for its pot smoking exploits and stoners, I don't think anyone bought any of the shit they were taught and certainly nobody listened to any bogus material, far too cluey for that. Even the teachers were rather progressive. I knew people who by the end of highschool had taken things as exotic as DMT and afterwards would engage you in an insightful description of the experiences and the neural mechanisms by which these experiences were produced. I was only considered a run of the mill druggo there. I may be looking back with rose-tinted glasses but from memory the place was more a hippie commune than a School, it was awesome.

 

[justsayknow]

And on your second question about marijuana and hormones, there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that this is confirmed. Read more here:
http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_myth6.shtml

Im glad someone has commented on the topic of hormones.

However the study cited by erowid refers only to reproductive issues.

Zinc is used for a whole swag of other things in the body. Does anybody know where this information about zinc depletion comes from? Does "Streets" mag cite its sources? Or are my hopes set too high for a high school drug education publication?

 

[justsayknow]

I am interested to ask people if they think you can teach full on harm reduction course in a high school because i think they should, possibly with an opt out option, but to be totally honest i think harm reduction can create an interest in trying some of these drugs you keep hearing about. I remember a thread in drug culture where just about everyone replied they thought bluelight had generated an interest in trying more exotic drugs. You could teach it in yr12, when they're adults not children but those who drop out in early years may well be the most needful of harm reduction advice but teaching it in yr9 who don't want to fire desires for drugs in kids.

Good point. I think it would depend on the school and how aware the staff were of the extent of drug use in the school. They would have to mould the material based on the audience.

With regard to the guys and girls who leave school before year 10. I know over here in WA there is harm reduction/education available at a lot of the youth centres, hostels and juvey facilities. Doesnt get to everyone in that group but gets to some. And the quality and theme of the information depends a lot on the organization presenting the material and the presenter themself.