Pot times July 18, 2005

Scots Infants Soon To Be Schooled In Dangers Of Illegal

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1136/a03.html
Newshawk: Herb

Pubdate: Mon, 18 Jul 2005
Source: Scotsman (UK)
Copyright: The Scotsman Publications Ltd 2005
Contact: Letters_ts@scotsman.com
Website: http://www.scotsman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/406
Author: Michael Howie
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

SCOTS INFANTS SOON TO BE SCHOOLED IN DANGERS OF ILLEGAL DRUGS

CHILDREN under five are to be schooled in the dangers of drugs in a bid to "drug-proof" Scotland's youngest generation, The Scotsman can reveal.

Infants will be introduced to the issue of illegal drugs while at nursery schools, and day centres for the first time.

Nursery teachers will begin training on the use of educational packages for children early next year, under an initiative led by Scotland Against Drugs ( SAD ).

The move follows the successful introduction of drugs education in primary schools in recent years.

Specific educational packages are likely to include concepts of "good" and "bad" medicine and also from whom it is safe to take medicine.

Details about specific controlled drugs will not be taught.

Childcare staff will be taught how to deal with children whose parents are drug users.

Training exercises will be launched in January and are expected to be open to all local authority staff involved in the education of pre-fives.

Alisdair Ramsay, the director of SAD, which is spearheading the initiative, said it was important that the anti-drugs message was delivered to children at the earliest possible age.

"I think we need to engage with children of all ages to provide the right kind of support for drug education.

"We have involved primary teachers working with children between five and 12, and involved secondary school teachers working with children between 13 and 18.

"Now we need to fill in the gaps and one of those is the under-fives," he said.

"If you can get their minds at the earliest appropriate stage we may well be able to 'drug-proof' the next generation."

SAD is currently in talks with a taskforce of nursery teachers and local authority managers about what form the education should take.

The scheme will be funded from SAD's A#1million core budget, which comes from the Scottish Executive, although local authorities will be asked to contribute.

Ewan Aitken, a spokesman on education for the council umbrella group CoSLA, said drugs education was being reviewed for all ages.

"This would be a new venture and obviously has to be done extremely sensitively," he said.  "But it is important that kids learn at an early stage about the dangers of drugs.

"No matter how hard we try, young children are sometimes exposed to these things and we have to deal with it."

Those behind the scheme are looking to expand the current health education offered to pre-fives to include drugs issues.

Mr Ramsay said: "To the uninformed there is a degree of apprehension because it looks as if we will be training pre-fives staff to teach children about heroin and cocaine.

"Nothing could be further from the truth.  We would instead want to see drugs education put into the context of health education.

"There is already so much work in nurseries about toilet training, washing hands, drinking water.  We wouldn't want this to be a case of 'straight out of the woodwork' - this is about drugs."

An Executive spokeswoman said: "If you can begin to get the information across to the children whilst they're young, then it is easier to build on their knowledge in later years.

"This should be done progressively.  We would expect at all times, particularly with very young children, that parents will be involved in what is being proposed and aware of what is being taught, and that they can voice any concerns about the suitability for their children."