Substance Misuse Prevention Education involves developing social and personal skills, fostering health promoting values and attitudes and giving age appropriate information, in that context on medicines and drugs, both legal and illegal.

The aim of Substance Misuse Prevention Education is to help pupils to develop appropriate skills, values and attitudes and to give them age appropriate information needed to make informed, healthy choices about substances

Substance Misuse Prevention Education should not be treated differently to other areas of the curriculum or taught in isolation. Such approaches could have the effect of sensationalising it as a topic rather than treating it as an integral part of the holistic development and education of the pupil in the context of the primary curriculum. The teacher is the best placed person to deliver substance misuse prevention education in the school setting.

Drug Education

Extensive research has been conducted into the efficacy of drug education programmes. The available evidence base suggests that drug education programmes such as the Walk Tall programme, that include knowledge, social, life and refusal skills can produce significant reductions in both legal and illegal drug use. Such programmes are best positioned within a broader health and personal development curriculum such as the SPHE curriculum