Scoop  Parliament

Govt sending mixed drug message

United Future law & order spokesman Marc Alexander has charged the Government with sending mixed messages to the nation’s schoolchildren about drug use.

After raising the topic in Parliament today, Mr Alexander said “On the one hand, Justice Minister Phil Goff is telling us the Labour Government is tough on drugs, wants to take drug revenues off the gangs and stop the manufacture of methamphetamines to halt the P epidemic.

“On the other hand, the Ministry of Youth Development is sending out drug education booklets to schools that takes a harm minimisation approach, rather than giving a drug avoidance message.

“Indeed, the booklet avoids promoting abstinence because it “stigmatises experimentation with drugs as deviant behaviour”.

“So we have one arm of Government battling to halt the drug scourge while another government agency is telling our kids ‘a little bit’s OK’.

“The Government’s got to get its act together on this matter and it should do it soon,” said Mr Alexander.

© Scoop Media

 

Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Regional Headlines

Gordon Campbell: On How National’s ”New” Welfare Plan Resurrects A Past Failure

Sam Uffindell’s defenders keep reminding us that he was only 16 at the time of the King’s College incident, and haven’t we all done things in our teens that, as adults, we look back on with shame and embarrassment? True. Let's be honest. Haven’t we all at one time or another, joined a gang and beaten a smaller, younger kid black and blue with wooden clubs? In that respect, Uffindell’s defenders on the streets of Tauranga risk sounding a bit like the psychiatrist Kargol played by Graham Chapman on Monty Python. Some of the media commentary has also noted how the Uffindell saga has taken the shine off National’s good poll results and distracted us all from the unveiling of an important welfare policy at the recent National Patty conference. OK… So let's put the spotlight back on that welfare policy...
More>>