Last month Alcohol concern issued a press release saying how underage drinking was on the rise, and went further calling for parents who give under 15's alcohol to be prosecuted.
This at the time seemed to me to be illiberal badly though out nonsense. If you look at a lot of European countries their children learn to drink responsibly at home, normally at the dinner table. Binge drinking in those cultures is not a big problem.
A lot of politicians asked about the proposal thought it was rubbish too. Good.
However Liverpool John Moore's University has just carried out a study, one of the findings of which was that drinking at home with parents tends to lead to more rather than less responsible drinking whilst drinking behind the bushes in the park leads to more irresponsible drinking. I can't say I am surprised. Dealing with underage drinking by becoming more authoritarian seems doomed to failure.
The BBC has this.
Showing posts with label Drugs policy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drugs policy. Show all posts
Friday, May 11, 2007
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Drugs education funding to be cut?
It seems that according to this item on the BBC's website that funding for drug education in schools and amongst excluded pupils is to be cut.
Apparently government says drug use is down. Well it maybe but that is not the point. Class A drug use isn't and there are still far to many young people using drugs.
As people know to well the drug use itself is not half as big a problem to the community as the things associated with it like anti social behaviour, and leaving drug paraphernalia lying about in children's play areas. What is more continuing drug use causes crime, and log term problems for the individual. In that context this seems to be a false economy. We all know that part of the reason for people becoming involved in drugs is peer pressure. It seems to follow that if drug use is going down, we are doing something right and need to keep it going down.
We also know that our prisons are full to over bursting point with criminals with drug problems. Clearly if we are going to solve these problems more money needs to be invested in drug education and rehabilitation not less.
I suspect the real reason for the cuts is that this government is having trouble managing its budgets despite the vast increases in tax that we have had over the years.
Apparently government says drug use is down. Well it maybe but that is not the point. Class A drug use isn't and there are still far to many young people using drugs.
As people know to well the drug use itself is not half as big a problem to the community as the things associated with it like anti social behaviour, and leaving drug paraphernalia lying about in children's play areas. What is more continuing drug use causes crime, and log term problems for the individual. In that context this seems to be a false economy. We all know that part of the reason for people becoming involved in drugs is peer pressure. It seems to follow that if drug use is going down, we are doing something right and need to keep it going down.
We also know that our prisons are full to over bursting point with criminals with drug problems. Clearly if we are going to solve these problems more money needs to be invested in drug education and rehabilitation not less.
I suspect the real reason for the cuts is that this government is having trouble managing its budgets despite the vast increases in tax that we have had over the years.
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