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NEWS: ABC News - 26/11/08 'Drug education not reaching young people, report warns'

hoptis

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Drug education not reaching young people, report warns
By youth affairs reporter Michael Turtle and staff
26/11/08

Charity group Mission Australia has called for a shake-up of drug education programs, arguing they are not reaching their target audiences.

Mission Australia's annual survey of 45,000 young people is one of the biggest in the country.

This year it found one third of respondents in the 11-14 age group were worried about drugs - an increase on previous years.

But it was not such an issue for older people, with the level of concern dropping by about a half.

Mission Australia's Anne Hampshire thinks it is a troubling finding because it is in the late teens and early twenties when illicit substance use goes up.

"So it seems like our education campaigns are not necessarily translating into a level of concern, then meaning that young people are actually able to deal with the issue," she said.

"We actually need to look again at our anti-drug education strategies to make sure that level of concern about the issue is actually giving young people information, rather than scaring them with shock tactics."

In Victoria, most young people are worried about drugs, body image and family conflict.

Mission Australia's Victoria director, Paul Bird, says this year is the first time drug use has been listed in the top three concerns.

He says the more young people find out about drug use, the more it worries them.

Drugs, family conflict and physical or sexual abuse are the top three concerns for young people in the Northern Territory, according to the charity.

As part of the national annual survey, 1,200 Territorians between the age of 11 and 19 were asked to rank 15 issues in order of importance.

Mission Australia's NT director Phillip Leslie says the findings do not mean young people are using drugs, but they are worried about them.

"We think that the concern, especially among the 11 to 14-year-olds, the concerns they have are varied, they worry about their friends and family taking drugs," he said.

"They wonder if they'll be able to resist peer pressure to experiment, and most of all they're worried about the damage drugs do."

One in four 11 to 24-year-old respondents in Queensland listed body image as the issue that concerns them most - which is higher than the national average.

Queensland director of Mission Australia, Tony Stevenson, says the results also shows that girls are more worried than boys.

"One in three girls are concerned about the issue, only about one in five boys, there is a difference," he said.

Young Queenslanders are also more concerned about suicide than those in the rest of the country.

The concern was followed closely by family conflict and suicide.

ABC Online
 
It's almost as if as they get older and start to think for themselves, they begin to critically analyze drug prohibition and realize that perhaps all is not as the G-men like to portray it as.
 
^ Certainly. During the late teens and early twenties a persons mental faculties are at a peak. I suppose it is around this time that they critically analyze the information given to them about drugs, and then conclude that authorities have comprehensively discredited themselves. It is hard to take the authorities in question seriously on any issue when we find they have been underhanded about even one. We need more credibility in drug education or else it all falls on deaf ears.
 
i educate young people about drugs and overdose prevention, its my job...

i do think more could be done for that age group...i think education about alcohol and other drugs needs to start at 10...for the majority that should be ok.

education needs to come from a non threatening casual way and as much on there level as possible....john howards just say no policy didnt work so lets hopefully learn from that and move on!
 
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