Stopping Kids From Taking Drugs

This article, published on the 14 September 2006 on the BBC website, reviews approaches to preventing children from taking drugs, including the random drug testing adopted by Kent County Council. It reports that since 2003 every secondary school in England has needed a drug policy which Ofsted has recently criticized for not placing sufficient focus on the social implications of taking drugs. Presumably they mean the negative social implications of taking drugs as opposed to the widely appreciated benefits of certain drugs in social situations. The article then examines the random drug-testing approach adopted by Kent County Council which may benefit pupils in the short term but may not encourage personal responsibility for later in life.