Pubdate: Tue, 04 Oct 2005
Source: Dominion Post, The (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2005 The Dominion Post
Contact:  http://www.dompost.co.nz
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2550
Author: Rebecca Palmer

START CAMPAIGN AGAINST DRUG USE SAYS CORONER

Drug education and policy need to shift from minimising the danger of 
substance abuse by young people to stopping it, Wellington coroner Garry 
Evans says.

Mr Evans has issued his findings into the deaths of six young people, aged 
15 to 27, from solvent abuse. Three had inhaled butane; the others lpg, 
propane gas and air freshener. None of the deaths were intentional. Mr 
Evans has made six recommendations to Associate Health Minister Jim 
Anderton, who chairs the ministerial committee on drug policy, and to 
Health Minister Annette King, several government ministries and health experts.

They include a national public education campaign to discourage the use of 
illicit drugs by children and young people.

There had been no sustained and effective health education programme aimed 
at preventing drug taking that corresponded to the effective campaigns 
mounted by the Health Ministry against drunken driving and cigarette 
smoking, Mr Evans said in his findings into the death of Haley Danielle Foster.

Haley, 15, died in December 2003 after inhaling air freshener.

Mr Evans said the Government's national drug policy, which is under review, 
should focus not on minimising the harm caused by young people using drugs 
but on preventing it.

He did not recommend criminalising solvent abuse, but rather a focus on 
substance abuse education and policy.

His recommendations include using trained specialists to deliver drug 
education programmes in schools.

Haley's mother, Sherryl Foster, backed the recommendations, saying drug 
education programmes should be provided by specialists. "I hope it all gets 
actioned, that it doesn't fall by the wayside."

Showing young people the consequences of substance abuse was more effective 
than talking about it, she said. After Haley's death, she took several of 
her daughter's friends to the mortuary to say goodbye and "to sort of 
hammer it home that this is (what is) going to happen".

Several witnesses who gave evidence at the inquests criticised the national 
drug policy's focus on harm minimisation, and on accepting drug use as a 
reality and trying to reduce the effects.

WellTrust drug educator Pauline Gardiner said solvent abuse was increasing 
and drug policies were not working.

Mr Evans said it was inappropriate to talk of "safe choices" in the case of 
children and young people.

The evidence showed "a need for a paradigmal shift in consciousness and 
approach toward a societal problem that constitutes a major blight upon 
young lives and is reaching crisis proportions", he said.

Mr Anderton said yesterday that a campaign against substance abuse could 
just encourage people who had not used drugs or solvents to use them. "If 
we can find a way of doing it that's not more dangerous than doing nothing, 
I'm all in favour of it."

Anti-drug messages were being communicated to young people. "But with the 
best will in the world we know that there are still drugs being taken and 
we try to reduce harm."

Health officials would carefully consider Mr Evans' recommendations, Mr 
Anderton said. The draft review of the drug policy would be finished this 
year or early next year.
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