This document discusses approaches to drug education for young people. It finds that interactive "life skills" programs that build skills like assertiveness and managing social situations can be most effective at reducing drug and alcohol use, compared to simply providing facts or warnings. Effective programs take time for reflection and are taught consistently, rather than one-off sessions. While experts can contribute, the content and teaching method are more important than who teaches. Engaging disconnected youth may also help through programs that improve classroom behavior and education completion. The organization advocates bringing evidence-based life skills programs to UK schools.

1. Protecting young people from
drugs and alcohol
Getting better drug education into schools

2. Did you know...
...fewer young people are drinking,
smoking or taking other drugs than
10 or 20 years ago.

3. But the health and
social impacts of
legal and illegal
drugs leave no
room for
complacency.

4. Is drug education in schools up to
the challenge?
“The year 11s are getting the same boring
drugs PowerPoint as the year 7s...”
“I am 16 years of age;
colouring pictures of
smiley face Ecstasy
tablets will not make
me less inclined to
take it.”

5. Simply giving the facts about
alcohol, tobacco and other drugs...
has little impact on
young people’s decisions

6. Dire health warnings
also seem to be ineffective

7. So what does work?
• Approaches based on ‘life skills’ or ‘social influences’
are the most effective at changing young people’s
behaviour.
• Programmes such as ‘Life Skills Training’ and
‘Unplugged’ have been tested in other countries and
found to reduce alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use.
• Their approach has a lot in common with ‘good’
PSHE teaching.

8. ‘Life skills’ include...
• Assertiveness and negotiation
• Managing difficult social situations
• Making and keeping positive friendships

9. These relate to the different reasons why
young people may take drugs
• Experimenting out of
curiosity or boredom
• To look tough
• To deal with anxiety or stress
• Enjoyment or relaxation
• To fit in with a group
• To rebel
• Thrill-seeking
• “Everybody’s doing it”

10. “Everybody’s doing it”

11. Or are they?

12. One element of life skills
approaches is to challenge
young people’s ideas about
what is normal and accepted.
For example, young smokers
think smoking is much more
common than it actually is.

13. Research suggests that
how drug education is
taught is as important
as what is taught.

14. Lecturing students is
much less effective
than interactive drug
education.

15. Interactive learning is key:
“You can’t learn life skills from a book”

16. • Successful drug prevention
programmes demand time
for reflection, review and
building on knowledge
• In contrast, schools often
teach drug education in
one-off drop-down days.

18. Should teachers hand over
to ‘experts’ on drugs?

19. Police as drug educators
• Content and teaching skills (what and how) are
more important than who is teaching.
• There is no evidence that police-led programmes
are particularly effective in drug prevention.
• The most effective police contribution
is probably to teach about drugs and
the law within a school-led
programme.

20. Are ex-addicts the answer?
• Those who have overcome addiction may want
to help by sharing their own experiences.
• As speakers, they often capture young people’s
imagination.
• But there is little evidence that their talks help
young people avoid harmful drug use.
• One piece of research found that young
people’s willingness to try drugs increased after
the session.

21. Teachers can do a good job...
...but they need to be given
the right tools and support
Too often drugs education is
left to teachers who are trained
not in PSHE but in French or
Geography.

22. Another approach to drug prevention
• Young people disengaged from school are at greater
risk of harmful drug use
• One programme, the ‘Good Behaviour Game’ helps
even disruptive young children to settle down and
work quietly.
• Later in life these children were less likely drop out of
education or develop drug problems.

23. To protect young people from drugs and alcohol,
Mentor campaigns to improve drug education and to
bring evidence-based programmes into UK schools