Lack of drug education found

A generation of young people are starting university lacking adequate drug and alcohol education, research suggests.

New research from the University of Sydney has highlighted gaps in alcohol and drug prevention programmes for people aged 16-19 years old.

At this age, the brain is wired to underestimate risk and overestimate pleasure, which researchers say prime young people toward behaviours such as drug use and getting drunk.

They say school leavers are left on their own to navigate a landscape where binge drinking and drug use is the norm.

When Ashleigh Manning started polytech in Wellington at 19 she was unprepared for the drinking culture she encountered.

Now aged 23, Manning recalled having alcohol and drug education lessons as part of PE in years 9 and 10, but said that was the extent of it.

Living in a university halls of residence was ‘‘horrid’’.

Though she is not a ‘‘big drinker’’ the pressure was still there. ‘‘I was absolutely surrounded by it.’’

The Australian research, published in the Drug and Alcohol Review yesterday, suggests there needs to be targeted, age-appropriate education for this ‘‘at-risk’’ group.

Researchers suggest students in senior years of high school – when recreational drug use becomes ‘‘more highly prevalent’’ – should be targeted with programmes that promote abstinence and talk about harmreducation. They should ‘‘balance’’ the ‘‘negative consequences’’ of alcohol and drug use while also promoting positive behaviour, the research stated.

As young people are more likely to internalise health information when they feel connected to their peers, adults, and the school, programmes should be ‘‘genuinely interactive’’ and nonjudgmental, they said.

National youth adviser for NZ Drug Foundation Ben Birks-Ang agreed young people needed more support in this area.

Alcohol and drug education for this age group should focus on the moment, rather than solely focusing on longer-term harms such as dependency, Birks-Ang said. ‘‘If health lessons focus on the extremes’’, young people may not recognise the harms.’’

... school leavers are left on their own to navigate a landscape where binge drinking and drug use is the norm.

University researchers