Ms Ruby Lawlor:

I will discuss how we talk about the fear when it comes to children and drugs, as Professor Stevens just said. Within these models we have been discussing today we are also aware that we do not want to increase drug use among children and that these reforms need to happen at the same time as the widescale implementation of drug education campaigns inside and outside of schools.

I will provide a little data. Stanford in the US conducted a study on the safety first real drug education for teens curriculum, which they implemented in a number of schools in the US. This curriculum focuses on accurate and concrete information about drugs benefits, risks, harms and how they can mitigate any risks or harms. We see this as an important strategy to reduce the harms that drugs can cause. It also recognises that there never has been, and never will be, a drug free society. As such it complements messages of abstinence with information on the safer use of drugs. When those who went through this curriculum did the evaluation afterwards, the results were that these children thought more critically about drugs and the impact of drug policies, they were empowered with information on how to make healthier choices about drugs and they possessed personal knowledge and strategies to manage risks of drugs. While it was not the point of the curriculum, the evaluation also found that those who participated in it overall reported increased knowledge about drugs and decreased personal substance use at the same time. It is, therefore, important to look at the evidence from drug education curriculums, awareness campaigns that are working and are not stigmatising and moving away from the just say no model. It is also about informing parents and those who are concerned, and politicians as parents themselves to children, and considering these models of regulation and decriminalisation. It will not just happen isolated from campaigns around drugs in general. There is a need to shift from a stigmatising messaging around drugs to actual accurate information and using the evidence of what actually helps to help mitigate drugs and risks of drugs. It is also for those who do not want to use drugs to be empowered to continue with that choice for themselves, and for those who do use to have the access to information they need to stay safe.