Programme on Legal Highs Launched, 5000+ Pupils Participated

Lincolnshire, England- A new initiative on educating children age 9-10 on legal highs is launched through joint effort of the Young Addiction Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire Police and Lincolnshire City Council.

The new education programme is aimed at raising countrywide awareness on the dangers of legal highs.

It was delivered in 24 schools with 5,200 participants who have taken part in an interactive session covering topics, such as how to keep safe, the effects of legal highs, how to identify the substances, quiz and interactive role-plays.

According to trainer Sandy Ford-Pain at Young Addaction Lincolnshire, they knew that young people in England were taking the substances and that legal highs were not really spoken about both in school or at home.

She concluded that the key element in order to crackdown on legal highs was delivering a programme to educate children against them.

This was a national issue as well as a challenge for any city, county or town and that they were facing up to it in Lincolnshire, commented Superintendent Mark Housley, a county office for public protection officer.

He added that they had fully embraced it by working with health organizations, emergency services, schools and support groups in order to discourage legal high usage and to tell them where they were being sold.

Finally, he said that the county was very much leading the efforts in tackling legal highs and that they were working with Public Health England in terms of sharing their approach with surrounding authorities.

On feedback of the educational road show, Peter Hesketh, coordinator at the West Grantham Academy St Hugh said that their pupils found the session informative and invaluable because it was able to educate them on why legal highs aren’t safe. He added that they were hoping to work with Young Addaction again and that their staff was keen of finding out more about how they could spot the signs.

Photo Credit: The Lincolnite