Drug Education.

[Rainbowmum]

I received no education at all , the nuns never mentioned it.
It was the same with sex ed.
I guess they thought they were sheltering us or something like that.

[Varanus]

My personal experience seems to be a hell of a lot better than the majority of you lot.

My education was from your average public high school in NSW.
In sport ED, we started on drug education from year 7 all the way through to year 10 as drug use is and was a big issue for not only this school but the majority of schools in this city.

I can remember being taught about the different sub categories, what each drug is called (Main drugs within the social stigma like depressants, uppers, hallucinogenics etc.) and of course the effects of such drugs both within short and long term usage.
We often had police men and paramedics come in and talk about drugs and the life it can lead to with crime etc.
So all in all we where given a very good education on such things within my school and where even shown what they look like.

Now im very pro choice in what ever someone wants to do is their own business but if your willing to do such activities you have to be prepared for the consequences of such actions if caught up in any legal ramifications or health issues that may arise.
But people need to understand while they are free to do such activities they also need to take care of themselves both physically and mentally.
I myself am often asked why is it im in the gym 5 days a week, eat clean and healthy and yet party my ass off on the weekends and its simple because if you can keep your body in shape and healthy plus keep care of your skin then you can put such toxins in with it not being as damaging to your body.

[unkown21]

We learned about different types of narcotics, hallucinogens, benzodiazepines etc when i was late in the 5th grade. And every year after that throughout public schools there seemed to always be like a drug awareness week or something like that where they would bring in police officers and former drug addicts who would talk to us about how drugs are bad and the consequences associated with them. It really didnt work at my high school. An anonymous survey was given to all of the students on drugs and alcohol, and the consumption of those substances, and it turned out like 75% of people at my high school smoked pot at least once, and 45% smoke it for recreational purposes ( I was one of the recreational users). Alcohol was like 90% tried it once and 60% drink it on occasion or regularly. Yeah i used to smoke the chronic up until i started my career, and i have done shrooms a couple of times. I dont really look at marijuana as a "gateway drug". Only in the sense that the people that start with pot and move to harder substances would do that anyway even if there was no such thing as marijuana. Everyone i know that smoked pot, started by stealing cigarettes from their mothers purse and then started to drink alcohol, eventually graduating to weed. The funny thing was at my high school, it was easier to get marijuana than it was to get alcohol. Also my high school was a brand new high school that was in a very rich area, where there wasnt much poverty. As a matter of fact, the kids that attended had wealthy parents for the most part.

[Lilitu]

I remember that our year 8/ year 7 class (it was a very small intermediate school of about 36 students so we had mixed classes) learnt about illegal drugs from a police officer in a programme called D.A.R.E

It was quite basic, and only lasted a couple of days. I felt it was a little lacking, since drug use is clearly a big problem in Auckland, and our school community was in the decile 10 region, and everybody was incredibly wealthy (except our family), sheltered but vulnerable.

It basically covered anti-tobacco messages, almost exactly the same as on television. This I felt was necessary but really not good enough to be useful for children, who only one or two years later, may have started smoking. My neighbour certainly did at the age of 12 or 13, although he wasn't at my school.

We covered class A drugs and all those dangerous ones like Heroin and Meth amphetamine. We were also taught not to assume something is safe just because it is 'natural', which is the downfall of many experimenters. The main example of this was the psychedelic fungus called magic mushrooms.

As for Cannabis, I'm now surprised that we were not taught more about this drug, given the huge number of people who use it, and how normalised it is on the Internet and other media. I don't think we were given enough information of its health effects, and too much was unreinforced messages.

Alcohol education was the best, as it gave specific guidelines and laws that surround it.

years later in form 4, much the same was repeated, except in a shorter amount of time and with no interactive learning.

I really didn't want to express my opinion on drugs here on the site, both because I still feel like I haven't got enough information to get a clear idea and because my current opinion doesn't seem very agreeable to most on the internet. But too late now. I don't agree with cannabis use, because there is too much conflicting information on its health effects, and because it is after all a mind-altering drug. I feel it is no different from other drugs, including alcohol, in that aspect. I personally have an aversion and disdain for using such substances in recreational ways, because I feel it is both unnecessary and, I don't want to offend anyone but for lack of a better word, hedonistic. It all just goes against my personal beliefs. I don't really know my view of its political situation, because I strongly disagree with the normalisation of cannabis use, yet believe that unreasoned and uninformed force is not the way to discourage drug use.

All in all, I hope drug education has improved and will improve, and puts more effort into facts and figures to reinforce the messages.
I feel as if I shouldn't have to resort to questionable sources on the Internet to get sufficient information on drugs, but I do.
I also feel that as a result, It's difficult for me to form a fully coherent view of it in a political or social light, even though I have an ethical one.\

edit: another thing I forgot to stress was the dramatisation of anecdotal evidence. That's not appropriate on either side of the argument. I'd like to see anecdotal evidence being phased out. It's inaccurate, inapplicable, and far too heavily implied to be factual and reliable evidence,

[jimbopdxus]

Interesting comments! Actually, the thought comes to mind that the teachers knew less about the drugs than the students. This has been proven over and over. The teachers regurgitated the stuff that they were told with no clue as to its authenticity. I went to parochial boarding school so was sheltered but when home my dad took me with him to the hospital on emergency calls and I learned real fast. But I also learned that our system of drugs is totally wrong! If drugs are illegal then there is no control over what is cut with them or what you are getting. If drugs were legal, then they would be under the manufacture of the pharmaceuticals (sp) that could control the quality and under the distribution of doctors that could monitor, maintain and provide counseling and control. Doctors are well trained to work with addiction. Police are not. I would much rather have a doctor treating me than a police officer beating me senseless.
Cocaine started as a pharmacy drug before it became illegal, LSD started out in research as a healing drug. We are rediscovering the MANY health benefits of pot.
Once the myths are erased THEN we can start the education and healing process!