Mike Williams: Positives of P education programme outweigh negatives

Methamphetamine use is a huge social and economic problem in New Zealand. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Thanks to the NZ Herald for highlighting the Stellar Trust's anti-methamphetamine education programme in schools with drug educator Pat Buckley.

Inevitably, Andrew Laxon's well-researched article drew criticism from Dr Chris Wilkins of Massey University who reflects mainstream academic opinion in this country in his doubts about methamphetamine education in secondary schools.

And, in particular, his condemnation of a very large anti-meth public awareness programme in the United States known initially as the Montana Meth project.

The Stellar Trust thought long and hard, and was aware of Dr Wilkins' arguments against methamphetamine education in schools, before deciding to fund and promote Pat Buckley's presentations.

Our decision to go ahead with the programme was influenced by several considerations including the fact that methamphetamine or "P" is a relatively new entrant into the illicit drug pantheon and is not usually covered by other programmes in schools.

As an important part of our research we met dozens of former users and addicts, including many undergoing rehabilitation, and discovered two important facts.

First, all who took the drug for the first time, without exception, had no idea of any downside to its usage. Matters like its powerfully addictive character and the ultimate psychosis associated with P were unknown to those who got trapped by the drug.

Second, many of these people had begun P usage at school. Indeed, it became clear that the criminal underworld pushing P was targeting teenagers at their schools.

We are also aware of a danger of drug education referred to by Dr Wilkins.

This is a phenomenon known as "collateral recruitment" whereby talking about some aspects of a drug's effects can inadvertently encourage people who might otherwise not contemplate its use, to try it out.

This is a hazard of any kind of risk avoidance education and we have made certain that our presentations eliminate or minimise this possibility.

Dr Wilkins also refers to the Montana Meth Project. This is an ongoing public awareness campaign which began in the American state of Montana, and which has now been adopted by many other states in that country.

Dr Wilkins repeats the view, which has become the received wisdom among academic and health circles, that this programme was ineffectual in its major stated objective of changing teenagers' attitudes to methamphetamine.

The main evidence to support this conclusion comes from two, now dated, academic treatises which show that young people's attitudes to methamphetamine in Montana changed no more rapidly than those of young people across the US during the period of the Montana Meth Project.

The Stellar Trust's conclusion, again after exhaustive research, is that these papers do not discredit major public awareness programmes, given some indisputable behavioural change statistics which occurred among the general population of the state of Montana at the time of the Montana meth project.

The state saw a heavy reduction in meth-related arrests, a phenomenon which would be most welcome in this country.

There was also a massive downturn in positive workplace drug tests for methamphetamine and a large reduction in meth-driven referrals to child-care facilities.

We have more work to do on Montana-style public awareness campaigns as a tool in the fight against P.

But we have concluded that the many states who took up the programme after its debut in Montana are evidence driven and acting rationally. We want to know more.

Methamphetamine use is a huge social and economic problem in New Zealand.

We have the worst or second worst P problem on earth.

It ruins young lives, wrecks families contributes hugely to crime and, increasingly, destroys enterprises.

We must approach the problem with open minds.

The nostrums and prejudices of the past are just not working.

* Mike Williams is chief executive officer of the Stellar Trust.