NEWS: IBN News - 21/06/07 'Education key to keeping young off drugs: Pyne'

[lil angel15]

Education key to keeping young off drugs: Pyne
Thursday, 21 June 2007

Educating young people about the dangers of illegal drugs is fundamental to keeping them from becoming addicts, the federal government says.

The minister responsible for the government's illicit drug policy Christopher Pyne said discouraging teens from experimentation was better than trying to put them back together again after they had begun using.

“(It's) certainly better and easier than helping them to pick up the pieces and kick addiction after drug habits have already formed,” he said.

Mr Pyne said the Australian government was committed to "investing heavily" in a variety of drug prevention and education activities.

“The National Drugs Campaign has been a key part of the government’s strategy to prevent the uptake of illicit drugs,” he said.

“More than $31 million has been invested in the first two stages of the campaign, between 2001 and 2005, and a further $23.7 million was made available over four years in the 2006-07 Budget for a third phase."

“This year’s Budget saw an additional $9.2 million allocated to the campaign, with a focus to be placed on informing young Australians and their parents about the dangers of methamphetamine, including the highly potent ‘ice’.”

The minister said the government's initiatives were working.

“We know, for example, that two in three parents feel the National Drugs Campaign has made it easier for them to talk with their kids about drugs, while 50 percent of teenagers say it has made it easier for them to talk with their parents,” Mr Pyne said.

“New reports released earlier this year also show that young Australians are aware of the dangers associated with cannabis use."

“These are great outcomes that clearly demonstrate the importance of investing in drug education and prevention strategies,” he said.

IBN News

 

[marklar_the_23rd]

maybe he could educate himself too...

 

[hyroller]

lol, so true. the more i knew about drugs, the more interested i became. however, knowing their insidious side has always prevented me from taking disproportionate risks or from going too far with it.

 

[juice_soldier]

i can see it now, grade six... health class

"Ice, It's a bad bad bad thing, look at this *shows faces of meth picture*. This woman, has 952 holes in her brain now - all from smoking, then shooting up ice.. DO YOU SEE WHAT IT DOES"

 

[peaked]

There's so many things wrong with that article but i'll just address the obvious.

The minister responsible for the government's illicit drug policy Christopher Pyne said discouraging teens from experimentation was better than trying to put them back together again after they had begun using.

Basically, pyne is trying to justify the age old scare tactics that have been taught to young children and wants to completely disregard any approach related to harm minimisation. Considering how poorly the "scare tactics" approach has been recieved over the last few decades, it just goes to show how out of touch pyne is with the drug using community. Ofcourse I'm sure this is nothing new to anyone that has read any article relating to pyne before. I cringe just thinking about the millions of dollars that are going to wasted on another anti-drugs campaign predestined to failure.

 

[Prince Planet]

^^^^ I completely agree. My understanding of the benchmark school drug education system, the DARE program in America, shows that the DARE participants were more likely to use drugs than young people who didn't participate in the program. This notion that you just "spray on" the magic school drug education program and hey presto, no drug problems makes great propaganda but is not based on reality.

Young people respond to being treated as young adults, not a bunch of mindless idiots who are easily scared by a bunch of lies. My experience is that when you provide good harm reduction messages, without the moral scare mongering, young people embrace it and are far more likely to practice it if and when using drugs.

 

[hyroller]

yeah but everyone knows that politics has little to do with resolving social problems and everything to do with winning the vote of middle-class/working-class australia. if the average voter perceives that the government is taking a stand against and nipping those riotous 'social deviants' in the bud, then they're under the impression that their vote is a benevolent one. little do they know that policy these days does anything but improve the mindset that drives people to escapism and destruction, it is merely a tool utilised by self-serving politicians looking to polarise society as much as they can, i.e., to win votes.

 

[PsiloSubNaut]

Pyne... hahahahaha

Drugs and politics just don't mix

Would love to slip him a good pill before a speach though!

 

[Mandy110]

As a just out of school user, the scare tactics are no use because we all just think i just wont let myself get that bad! All the pictures and descriptions of drug users do nothing if we wanna take it we will. They should put their efforts into 'making the drugs in a controlled environment and making them legal Haha like that would ever happen!!