Drug action teams coming, but not till next year

By AMANDA SPRATT

Government-funded drug education for young people using substances such as methamphetamine will not be available until next year.

The Ministry of Health says 15 community-owned "drug action teams" will be based in places identified as being in "greatest need".

Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton, who chairs the Ministerial Committee on Drug Policy, said this year's Budget allocated $2.55 million a year to address the drug problem at a community level.

However, he said the teams, called Community Action Initiatives, would not be up and running until next year.

The ministry was still researching communities with greatest need, but when the plan did start it would address young people's relationship with illicit drugs.

That could be too late for some, says the head of the Foundation for Drug and Alcohol Education, Colin Bramfitt. He says politicians need to help communities with the methamphetamine problem now.

Other government departments have also started working on the P problem.

The Ministry of Education says education about methamphetamine in secondary schools falls under the wider mental health and physical education curriculum. Individual schools could decide whether to tackle the P problem specifically.

However, in response to the "increasing apparent use" of P, the ministry is working with police, the Ministry of Health, the Drug Foundation, the Dare Foundation and teachers and senior students to provide a community action plan on drugs.

A youth education service curriculum officer with the police, Gill Palmer, said the community action plan was sparked by police officers on the ground who received requests from secondary schools wondering what to do about P. The plan included packages for boards of trustees and principals, teachers, peer educators and parents. Police would provide in-school training for teachers.

In the classroom, students would use role-play techniques to discuss drugs in drama and work with drug abuse statistics in maths.

The parents' package would contain information about drugs in general, how to tell if their child might be using drugs, and where to get help.

However, Ms Palmer did not expect pilot programmes to start in communities until early next year. "If you do something thoroughly, it does take time."

Herald Feature: The P epidemic

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