Activity IA: Ice Breaker/Games:
The students work in groups of 10. They will get to know each other better in this way and prepare themselves for the workshops later.
Name Game:The group stand in a circle. The facilitator throws a small soft ball to one of the group and speaks his/her own name. The students have to memorise each other's names. This is done twice to establish the names. Then the facilitator throws a soft ball to someone whose name he/she remembers by calling out that person's name. Once the group is comfortable with this the facilitator introduces more balls until the whole thing is very moving fast and requires a lot of concentration.
In Order OF:Facilitator indicates a line (real or imaginary) on the floor to represent a scale of one to ten. He/She then tell the group to organise themselves on this line in order of different physical categories - e.g., light to dark hair, colour of cloths, eyes. This can then go on to categories such as most brothers and sisters to least, most pets to no pets, born in January until December, first name starting at the first letter in the alphabet, etc…
Entangle:A volunteer leaves the room and Facilitator instructs the group to hold hands in a line. The two ends of the line 'tangle' the group up by weaving in and out of each others arms to create a big interlocked jumble of bodies. The volunteer returns and proceeds to try and untangle the group by finding the ends and unravelling everyone without breaking the chain.
Activity IB: - Ice Breakers/Ranking
How dangerous are the following drugs? Order them according to your perception on the scale of 1-7 with 1 being the least and 7 most dangerous)?
| TYPE OF SUBSTANCE | LEVEL OF DANGER FROM 1 - 7 |
| ALCOHOL | |
| COCAINE | |
| CANNABIS | |
| ECSTASY | |
| TOBACCO | |
| SOLVENTS | |
| HEROIN | |
Activity IC - Drugs and Alcohol Quiz
The students will carefully read the following statements then underline True or False.
- A pub measure of whiskey contains more alcohol than a pint of Harp. TRUE / FALSE
- Alcohol is an addictive drug. TRUE / FALSE
- Cannabis is not addictive. TRUE / FALSE
- You can loose your memory after using cannabis. TRUE / FALSE
- 8-10 cups of tea or coffee a day could make you addicted to caffeine. TRUE / FALSE
- Injecting heroin will give you AIDS. TRUE / FALSE
- Black coffee and cold showers sober you up. TRUE / FALSE
- Smoking helps people relax. TRUE / FALSE
- In the UK approximately one person dies every 8 minutes through smoking cigarettes. TRUE / FALSE
- Cannabis does not have any damaging effects. TRUE / FALSE
- Infants have an increased possibility of Cot Death if their mother/father smokes. TRUE / FALSE
- The recommended safe limit of alcohol for adult males is the same as for females. TRUE / FALSE
- Smoking is the largest preventable cause of death in the UK. TRUE / FALSE
TALK: Drugs & Alcohol and Health & Legal Consequences
Activity II: Workshop on Drugs & Alcohol and Health
Using the information from the previous talk, two brochures provided by CEWC NI and Lisburn YMCA, first in pairs then in the whole group complete the following table.
| Drug's name | Slang name | Short description | Side effects/dangers | Potential users | Similar Drugs | Consequ-ences of taking it | Alternatives |
| Cannabis hallucinogen C | Blow… | Drug's aims: relaxation, talkativeness,… Time: instant effect, lasts 3 hours Form: … | hallucination, intoxication, 'being drunk', …. | young people under peer pressure with lack of confidence | alcohol, cigarettes, LSD (hallucination, psychosis, change of feelings) | Arrest, expulsion from school, …………… | to relax: go to a cinema do some sport. For confidence building take part in the Junior Drugs Forum |
| Alcohol depressant legal | Booze… | Aim: relaxation,… Time: starts immediately, lasts… Form: ….. | false sense of confidence, aggressiveness, damages your liver,… | ……... | glue,… | …………... | to relax:.…. for confidence: take part in D&DYF, etc. |
| Tobacco stimulant legal | Fags… | Aims: makes one alert … Time: starts ….., lasts short period of time Form: cigarettes… | damages your heart and lungs, affects your breathing, … | people under stress,… | Cannabis (relaxing effect) … | …………... | ……………… |
| Solvents depressant legal | Volatile substances include glues, … | Aims: intoxication… Time: starts immediately, lasts for….minutes Form: glue, gas, petrol, etc. | hallucination, intoxication, headaches, loss of coordination, delusions aggressive acting………………….. Extremely dangerous, it kills three times more young people than any illegal drug. | ………….. | …………. | …………… | ……………………. |
All these details depend on a person, duration and an amount of a particular drug taken
Activity III: Attitudes towards drugs & alcohol related issues - Line Debate
Agree/disagree
All students line up in the middle of the hall. Those who agree with a statement go to the right and those who disagree to the left. The students then are given an opportunity to voice their opinions and convince their peers to swap the sides. The students' attitude towards drugs will be tested in this way.
- Anyone caught experimenting with illegal drugs should be expelled from the school/college.
- Drugs education should be carried out by outside agencies and not be teachers
- One of talks on drug and alcohol are useless and should be replace with more comprehensive & holistic long term approaches
- You need alcohol to make a social occasion pleasurable Cannabis should be legalised.
- 24 hour opening time will lead to an increase in an antisocial behaviour.
- Coffee and tea should be banned for children under 14.
- Some pop musicians support drugs to gain publicity.
- Smoking should be banned in pubs/clubs in Northern Ireland.
- Allowing young people to drink legally would result in more responsible attitude towards alcohol.
TALK Talk on School Drug Policy & School Guidance delivered by SEELB
ACTIVITY IV: SCHOOL DRUG*POLICY WORKSHOP
*Drug: all illegal drugs & alcohol and tobacco
After a short introduction to the topic the students will be required to formulate proposals dealing with a school drug policy looking at:
target groups
counselling
school councils
methods of highlighting harmful effects
effective drug & alcohol education in schools
expulsion?
who should deliver the drugs and alcohol education in schools?
recovery addicts and their potential involvement in drug & alcohol education programmes?
This exercise will be carried out in workshop groups. The students work as usual, first in pairs and then together in groups.
They can use their own school drug policy and the information from the previous talk as a basis for this exercise. Their previous reading (CEWC NI and other useful websites) and talks should also be used as a stimulation source.
A short oral feedback will follow after the completion of the exercise. Your findings from this workshop will be put together and based on these results a set of motions for debate at the Second Sitting will be formulated. Remember that the proposals you come up with now may be presented by you directly to the Board of Governors of your own school and consequently shape your future School Drug Policy.
