Drug 'scare' gets 'em high

Anti-drugs lessons at schools might be inadvertently encouraging children to take up illicit substances.

The British government's advisory board on drugs said bringing police officers into classrooms to warn children about the consequences of taking drugs might be useless. Such scare tactics might make drug-taking appear "sexy" to teenagers and encourage them to experiment.

Many other popular prevention techniques are "ineffective at changing behaviour" and "may even increase the risks of drug use", the council told Home Secretary Theresa May this week.

Official data suggests one in three adults in the UK has taken illicit substances.

The advisory council, made up of 20 leading drug experts, called on British officials to consider holding back funding for programmes unless there is clear evidence that they work.

They also warned that mass-media adverts on preventing drug use - a staple of government strategies for raising awareness about illicit substances - could be backfiring.