'What works' in drug education and prevention?

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'What works' in drug education and prevention?

19 December 2016

At the time of writing, trends in adolescent substance use in Scotland show a general decline over time. The recently published Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS) showed that the proportion of pupils who reported that they had used drugs in the last month has been gradually decreasing since 2002, with the exception of 15 year old boys, for whom there has been a small increase between 2013 and 2015. The focus of this literature review is on drugs, but tobacco and alcohol are also considered – across all 3 substances prevalence has remained largely stable since 2013, against a backdrop of considerable decline over the last two decades. While this general downward trend in reported substance use is welcome, there is little understanding currently as to why this is the case, why reported use of certain substances may be on the rise for particular groups and what role drug prevention delivered in Scotland has played in this.

The aim of this review is to explore the evidence of effectiveness of different types of drug prevention and education for children and young people, principally that which is delivered in schools. There is a need for clarity around "what works‟ and what does not, to inform approaches taken towards drug prevention and education for young people in Scotland. This is particularly important because currently there is a poor understanding of what prevention activity is being delivered in Scotland, both in schools and more widely. The lack of a national picture of prevention activity in Scotland was identified as a gap and highlighted as a priority for research on prevention in Scotland in both the Report of the Special Working Group on Prevention (2012) and in the Scottish National Research Framework for Problem Drug Use and Recovery (2015).

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