Parents outraged as cannabis smoking tips are handed to students by school

[cannabis-sam]

Parents outraged as cannabis smoking tips are handed to students by school




'Know Cannabis': A 20-page booklet which provides tips on the best way to smoke the drug is being hand out at to school children (file photo)

Parents have reacted with fury after a booklet which provides tips on the best way to smoke cannabis and the benefits of the drug was handed out to school children.
The 'Know Cannabis' booklets, which is given to teenagers preparing for GCSEs, includes advice on whether to use bongs or buckets and how to roll joints.
It is not until page 14 of the 20-page booklet that readers are told that cannabis is actually illegal, just before the information that under-18s can be arrested three times before they will be prosecuted.
The news comes a day after Cannabis was officially reclassified from Class C to Class B.
Parents in the North East have demanded the booklets be removed from schools after claiming they are advertising the drug.
Aimed at youngsters, it includes advice on how best to take the drug.
It carries the cost of 'vaporisers' which are a 'less risky' way to take the drug and warn not to roll a cannabis cigarette with too many cigarette papers as 'three skinners will do'.
The booklets begin by telling youngsters to 'Know the effects, how it is used, the risks, and how to avoid them'.
North East councils including Northumberland only use the booklets with known drug-users they are trying to help with their habit - but they are widely used in North Tyneside.
One 45-year-old mum from North Tyneside said she was outraged when her 15- year-old asthmatic son came home and told her he had been given 'a lesson on how to smoke cannabis safely'.

'At first I thought he was joking about it. To discuss smoking with an asthmatic child without explaining the extra dangers to people with lung problems is incredibly irresponsible,' she said.

'Then he showed me the cannabis booklet. I was furious when I read it, parts of it are designed like an advert for the stuff.
'What is this school thinking of? The only way to avoid the risks of illegal drugs is to keep well away from them.'
North Tyneside Council said the booklet was part of the National Drugs Education Programme, aimed at alerting Year 11 students to the risks of drug misuse, and that no complaints had been received from parents.
But the mother, who did not want to be named to protect her son, added: ‘The booklet does mention the dangers of cannabis use. But this is mixed in with messages that suggest cannabis use is normal and 'acceptable' even, which I am sure most parents will disagree with.
The booklet is produced by Merseyside-based HIT, which provides 'social marketing campaigns' on drugs and alcohol and sexual health, which said it did not mean to encourage drug use and would be happy to listen to any complaints.
A North Tyneside Council spokeswoman said: ‘The materials referred to are used across the nation by schools as part of the National Drugs Education Programme.
‘The aim of the programme is to alert Year 11 students to the risks and harm caused by drug misuse.
‘No complaints have been raised with the school or local authority in relation to these materials.’
North Tyneside's Conservative mayoral candidate Linda Arkley said: "We should be sending a message to children that drugs damage your health and aren't any good for you.
The Department for Children Schools and Families said it did not dictate what children were taught about drugs and content of drug education are taken at local level.
Sunderland Council said it used HIT material, but only where a child was already known to be using drugs.

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By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:23 AM on 27th January 2009

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ts-school.html

COMMENT BY CANNABIS-SAM: Seems to me that if the child was asthmatic then the booklet was saying a vaporiser would be safer and I'm sure cannabis (not smoked) opens the airways. This doesn't strike me as any more than a drink responsibly leaflet but no ones up in arms about them

Reputation Comments on this post:

Thanks for this and other news articles you've posted.

[robin_himself]

Hey sam, great post! I just want to point you to the protocol/rules on how to post news post. You should upload your pictures as attachments, when you do this you can inline your pictures nicely with this code imgr=white]http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=****&stc=1&d=121210467 3[/imgr
only put the code in [ ] and the number of attachment where the stars are, this way you inline your picture nicely so it can be viewed on the drugs-news page.

[cannabis-sam]

Sorry I can never seem to get this news posting thing right it's so complicated :S I'll try and sort it.

cannabis-sam added 5 Minutes and 3 Seconds later...

For fucks sake I'm having trouble uploading the picture it's invalid when I try and upload it from my PC and gives me another message when I copy link location into the URL box what am I doing wrong.

[robin_himself]

Originally Posted by cannabis-sam

Sorry I can never seem to get this news posting thing right it's so complicated :S I'll try and sort it.

Don't worry, when I started I got the same post from another member. If you don't seem to manage just pm alfa and you'll be good to go.

[cannabis-sam]

I'll have to download a photo editor to mess with the photo so it will upload. ever since switching to mac I havn't been able to upload images onto this site.

[Expat98]

Originally Posted by cannabis-sam

Sorry I can never seem to get this news posting thing right it's so complicated :S I'll try and sort it.

cannabis-sam added 5 Minutes and 3 Seconds later...

For fucks sake I'm having trouble uploading the picture it's invalid when I try and upload it from my PC and gives me another message when I copy link location into the URL box what am I doing wrong.

I have edited your post so that the image is uploaded as an attachment instead of linking to it on the original website.

I have also edited it so that the article link, date, author, etc. appear after the article instead of before it. Please put this info after the article. Sorry if this seems over-complicated, but the reason for this rule is so that the articles on the main news portal page all have a consistent appearance.

[Expat98]

BTW, please use paragraph breaks when you post articles. Here is a tip on an easy way to preserve the paragraph breaks that are in the original article:

1. Open a text editor, for example Wordpad or Notepad if you use Windows
2. Paste the original article text into the text editor
3. Copy and paste the text from the text editor into your post

For some reason the paragraph breaks get lost if you paste the original article directly into your post, but if you do it this way then they won't get lost.

[cannabis-sam]

Cheers for that I'll get it right next time sorry for the trouble.