Sessions
Our sessions are based on topics such as:
Peer Pressure
Looking at Peer Pressure with younger students, before talking about drugs will demonstrate to them how easy it is to be sucked into something that can be dangerous and potentially life-threatening.
Causes of Addiction and What can we be Addicted to?
We divide the young people into smaller groups, and discuss the two subjects. At the end of this, we bring them all back to the main group, and discuss their findings. By working this way with the students they accomplish some self-realisation towards addiction. Often it comes to the forefront that everyday tasks can become addictive, although not harmful, they begin to understand how addiction can affect their and their family’s lives. Once these areas have been identified through discussion, we will look at the causes of addiction. This session makes the students more aware of the dangers of the things we take for granted, and gives them more self-awareness of the dangers to look out for.
Looking at different drugs
We provide information the various drug groups: depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, cannabis, steroids and inhalants. There are a large number of performance-enhancing drugs around, which we discuss with the students, and look at the psychological and physical dangers of them. We will also look at the Legal Highs that are becoming more common with young people. To older students we take them on a journey from cannabis to heroin, looking at the natural progression from one drug to the next. Our sessions include how each drug works within our bodies.
Effects, consequences and withdrawals
Our in-depth discussions look at the physical, psychological and environmental effects of drug abuse. Emphasis is put on the fact that there is a consequence with every drug that is taken. Students are encouraged to interact as we look at the extent some people will go to fund their drug of choice. We also look as a group at the people who can, if we allow them, affect our lives. This is more common today, as young people are becoming involved in professional sport at a younger age than they were in previous years. There are many “hangers on”, who can manipulate individuals into the dangerous ways of life.
Summary
Using information gained from many years’ experience working in the drug field, we teach young people to be aware of the dangers of drugs and alcohol. We believe that good quality drug education can impact on changes in specific lifestyle patterns and reduce the use of drugs and associated problems for young people.
Drug education can contribute towards decreased harm and increased safety for young people, their families and communities.
We continually update our information about drugs, which is important part of drug education, as new drugs and new terminology are regularly being introduced. We look at the lifestyle of young people. Our aim is to increase knowledge and understanding of drugs, their use and dangers, the law and helping agencies through provision of accurate and up to date information.