Imagine for a moment you are a parent.

What would scare you more: the fear that your child has taken drugs or the fear that they may not know what to do once they have?

A drug action team in Barnet has a very realistic approach to an old problem. It is one of 27 teams working on a nationwide campaign called Study Safely. This is the second stage in a larger drug information campaign, set up three years ago and which is now overseen by drug tzar Keith Hellawell.

The main objective of the Study Safely campaign is to provide comprehensive drug education. Booklets have been produced and handed out at university fresher fairs detailing drugs currently available on the market and their positive and negative side-effects.

The aim is to ensure that if students are going to take drugs, they do so safely and know where to go for help.

Booklets are just a small part of the campaign. There are also posters on college notice boards and drug training for university welfare officers.

Julia Utting, student services manager at Hendon College, said that the publicity in the college was 'brilliant' and that the posters were up in the common room.

Other campaign objectives include targeting young offenders. The youth justice team in Barnet runs a supported cautions scheme in the borough, which means that youngsters who receive a police caution will automatically be given information about drugs.

The drug action teams, consisting of school, police, probation and health representatives, co-ordinate these different elements and ensure that government objectives are met on a local level.

Jean Nicol coordinates Barnet's Drug and Alcohol Action Team. She hopes tackling the drug issue will help reduce crime in the borough. She has worked on a drug programme in Glasgow and the national drugs helpline.

Surveys carried out by the team show that the majority of people with a serious dependency on drugs or alcohol finance their habit through crime. Statistics show that the average heroin user in the borough causes more than £300 of crime each week.

The team aims to liaise with international police and customs officers to reduce the amount of class A drugs coming into the country and work with the Metropolitan police in catching the dealers.

"All young people are close to a source of drugs. It's something there in young people's lives and that is true everywhere. The thing is to introduce correct information," she said.

The scheme aims to get students to pool their knowledge on available drugs and then set about trying to tackle the problem as a team. Some schools have chosen to make videos, others have conducted study sessions where ideas were discussed.

Ms Nicol wants to make sure local authorities know what the national strategy is. Her priority is re-educating students rather than indoctrinating them.

"Thirty-thousand people a year die from alcohol-related problems and it's so endemic in society. A lot of people don't know how it's going to affect their lives and they really want to know. We work very closely with the National Union of Students and we work at providing training for welfare staff at universities," she said.

She went on to say that setting the team up in Barnet was easy as there has been a lot of support for the project.

"We have had a very good reception in Barnet. We have a really good youth service here. They have a drug youth worker and the health authority has given us funds to get a part-time youth worker and four outreach workers who go out on the streets," she said.

Barnet does not have a chronic drug problem as yet, but that is no reason to rest on our laurels. For Ms Nicol it is an added incentive to make the team a success.

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