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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Scotland: New Drugs Aim To Inform Instead Of Warn
Hamish Macdonell The Scotsman
Wednesday 20 Mar 2002 MINISTERS announced a major U-turn on drugs policy yesterday, rejecting the traditional Just Say No approach in favour of an information campaign explaining what drugs are and what they do. Jim Wallace, the justice minister, conceded that telling young people not to take drugs had not worked. Indeed, Mr Wallace claimed the inflexible approach might even have had the effect of persuading some young people to take drugs as a form of rebellion . The new policy, Know the Score, is designed to tell parents and young people exactly what drugs do and what dangers they pose. A series of detailed leaflets and booklets have been produced and a website set up to explain what drugs are available in Scotland, what they are known as on the street and what the effects are. However, Mr Wallace denied that the new policy represented an admission of failure on behalf of the executive. He said: "I would deny we are going soft but Just Say No has had little or no impact and may even have had the counter-effect." And he added: "They are not going to salute the flag and just do it because they are being told to do it, they will choose healthy lifestyles because they have the information, the fact-based information, that shows them that is the course to take." The =A36 million information strategy is part of the executive=EDs three-year =A3128 million anti-drugs fund which is being implemented through drug courts and rehabilitation services. The three-pronged initiative will target dealers by confiscating their assets, rehabilitate addicts and provide information for the public to enable them to make decisions. Welcoming the strategy, the director of Scotland Against Drugs, Alistair Ramsay, said: "Old practices like finger-wagging and sermonising on matters designed to scare young people away from drugs clearly have not worked." But the Tories criticised the new approach, claiming the executive had not given Just Say No a chance to succeed. The Scottish Tory justice spokesman, Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, said: "Parents who try hard to dissuade their children from taking drugs will be dismayed at the executive=EDs climbdown. "Instead of sticking to the message that drug abuse is dangerous and stepping up efforts to eliminate it, the executive appears to have raised the white flag and softened its policy towards drug abuse. "This short-sighted and irresponsible attitude sends out entirely the wrong message to our young people." PARENTS AND DRUGS KNOWING THE SCORE THE Know the Score literature is probably the most detailed, graphic and knowledgeable information ever put out by the government to parents on the subject of drugs. The parents-pack does not hold anything back. It explains not just what the drugs do but what the drugs are known as on the street. The pack also tells parents how to spot the symptoms of drug abuse and what to do if their child collapses as a result of taking drugs. The aim is to bridge the generation gap between parents and their children which often prevents parents from communicating properly about drugs. In one concise piece of advice to parents, it states: "There=EDs nothing worse for a teenager than a parent who tries to be =EBcool=ED or =EBhip=ED when we almost certainly don=EDt know the name of the latest drug." It recommends asking questions, listening and then giving advice rather than lecturing. The pack divides the available drugs into stimulants (MDMA, cocaine and amyl nitrates), depressants, (heroin, methadone and solvents) and hallucinogens (LSD, cannabis and magic mushrooms), explaining each one in detail. =46or instance, it explains how ecstasy, or MDMA, is known as E, love hearts, doves, rhubarb and custard and disco burger, and that it is sold in white or brown tablets or capsules. It sets out the legal penalties for possession and dealing in each case and offers First Aid advice and support-centre telephone numbers. The passage on LSD shows the sort of information which the executive wants to get across to parents. It states: "Acid is normally sold in small amounts which have been soaked into blotting paper printed with various designs. When a person takes it they have hallucinations. "The way they see, hear and feel the world around them changes both at the time of taking the drug and in the form of flashbacks afterwards."
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