Pubdate: Sat, 2 Jan 1999
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Author: Victoria Fletcher and Valerie Elliott

STOP TALKING TO CHILDREN ABOUT 'SOFT' DRUGS, TEACHERS TO BE TOLD

TEACHERS will be told to stop describing drugs as "soft" or
"recreational" because that encourages children to experiment with
cannabis and Ecstasy, Keith Hellawell, the drugs czar, said yesterday.
Mr Hellawell is so concerned that the terms are misunderstood by
children that he intends to launch a national advertising campaign to
urge the public to drop them.

The move comes after a study of attitudes about drugs among
seven-year-olds in Lincolnshire. The children said that so-called
"hard" drugs such as heroin were bad, but believed that "soft" drugs
were good.

Mr Hellawell is so disturbed by the findings that the new tough
message that all drugs are equally dangerous will form the centrepiece
of a ten-year strategy that he will unveil shortly. Ministers are
increasingly concerned that they are losing the battle against drugs;
a recent study showed that more children in Britain use drugs than in
any other European country.

Mr Hellawell said that a drug was a drug and that all must be treated
with equal severity. Many children were less fearful of the effects of
some drugs because of the terminology used by teachers, politicians
and broadcasters.

He added: "You have to consider the consequences that using such words
as 'recreational' and 'soft' can have on young children. They know
that Ecstasy is bad. But when it is called a recreational drug, that
does not seem as serious."

He said that the use of the term "soft drugs" was giving young people
the wrong message: "Young people don't even seem to understand the
legal consequences of getting involved with drugs. They think a police
caution is just like a slap on the hand. Young people say they will
not get involved in hard drugs, but they fail to understand the
problems even connected with cannabis. They might not get a visa to
travel to the United States. There will be no jobs for them in the
Army or the police force if they have been caught in possession of the
drug. We must start getting this message through."

His approach will call into question the way many schools and health
education advisers try to combat drug use. They give children detailed
information about the different risks posed by various drugs, with
clear distinctions made between hard and soft drugs.

Mr Hellawell's comments are a thinly veiled attack on Estelle Morris,
the Minister for School Standards, who in November urged schools to be
more lenient with pupils caught experimenting with cannabis. Speaking
to a teaching conference, Ms Morris criticised schools adopting
"zero-tolerance" policies and said that pupils caught with drugs for
the first time should not necessarily be expelled.

Mr Hellawell was appointed Anti-drugs Co-ordinator by the Prime
Minister a year ago to create a nationwide strategy to tackle the
problems posed by Britain's estimated 200,000 drug addicts.

A national plan for anti-drugs lessons will be introduced in the
autumn for pupils from the age of five. Mr Hellawell said that
reformed drug users could be used in more schools to give talks to
pupils from the age of 11 and that such first-hand accounts could
prove one of the most effective ways of getting the message through to
young people.
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