Young people’s views on drug education in schools: implications for health promotion and health education

Abstract

Government policy places strong emphasis on the value of school‐based drug education, and offers guidelines around the development of appropriate drug education. This paper is based on research conducted with 575 young people via a questionnaire survey which sought to obtain their views on what constitutes effective drug education. Findings included strong support from young people for school‐based drug education; suggested roles for parents, ex‐drug users, friends and youth workers in drug education; a desire for clear facts about drugs and drug use in order to enable young people to make informed decisions; support for the use of interactive teaching methods; and the need for drug education to start in primary school. These findings highlight the potential value of involving young people in the development of drug education in order to ensure maximum engagement in and learning from school‐based drug education programmes.