The Australian Government, through the Department of Education, Science and Training, has updated the Candidly Cannabis kit which was originally produced in 1996. The updated resource, Cannabis and Consequences, is designed to strengthen the response of schools to the challenge of drugs. Cannabis and Consequences is intended to complement preventative drug education programmes supported by the Australian Government under the National School Drug Education Strategy.
Cannabis and Consequences seeks to engage students to actively explore the issues surrounding cannabis, provide students with accurate information, encourage them to discuss issues, acknowledge the potential consequences of using cannabis, and provide opportunities to practise skills to successfully manage exposure to cannabis. It aims to build student skills in three major areas:
- Increasing knowledge and critical evaluation of information sources
- Problem solving such as those used to resolve tension related to decision making; and
- Help-seeking skills such as those used to ask a teacher for help or to tell someone else about another’s problematic drug use.
The education resource includes an educational video titled, Wasted: Cannabis and Consequences, a teacher resource booklet, and a CD-ROM containing the teacher booklet and a series of commonly asked questions for parents. The teacher resource booklet provides a range of classroom activities to address diverse skills and needs of students as well as suggested programming ideas. Background information on cannabis for teachers including current research, facts, and commonly asked questions is included to assist teachers in dealing with this important topic.
The video is provided to point to a range of intended and unintended consequences of cannabis use including academic, social, health and relationship harms, both short and long term. The teaching and learning activities assist the teacher to explore these further.
Cannabis and Consequences was distributed to all schools with secondary enrolments in Term 3, 2003.