A fresh education campaign, with a similar message to the anti drink-driving stance embedded in the 1970s, is needed to teach children that taking class A drugs is “shameful”, a meeting has heard.
North Yorkshire has seen a significant rise in complex child death cases, such as drug-related ones over 2020/21 and analysis is being undertaken to examine why.
In a report to a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s young people scrutiny committee, the Child Death Overview Panel chair Anita Dobson said over the last year the panel was “mindful of an increase in drug-related deaths”.
She said it was thought the rise “may well be an indication of reduced mental wellbeing amongst young people, for which coronavirus could be a contributing factor” and that the panel would monitor the situation closely.
The concerns follow pledges by North Yorkshire and York’s past and present police, fire and crime commissioners to prioritise tackling county lines drug dealing gangs, which often target children, particularly in Harrogate and Scarborough.
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Councillors were told there had already been “a lot of work in educating children and young people directly” as well as parents and carers, to ensure people were aware of the risks of taking class A drugs.
Harrogate Central councillor John Mann told the meeting as well as tackling the supply of class A drugs, efforts to reduce demand for them were needed as “without the demand there would be no supply”.
He suggested an education drive, using a similar antisocial message to the 1970s drink-driving campaign, was required.
Cllr Mann said:
“As a local authority and as a country we need to try to reduce the demand and make it shameful to take class A drugs because we all have wider responsibilities as citizens.”
‘Complex situation’
After the meeting, the authority’s children’s services executive member, Cllr Janet Sanderson, said she agreed with making taking class A drugs socially unacceptable.
She said:
“We have to get the view of the young people out on the streets who are being tempted by these things and probably deal with an innovative approach to tackle it.
“In the 1970s it was normal to drink-drive. And then all of a sudden if you drove at 32mph in a 30mph area they stopped you and breathalysed you and it stopped it overnight.
“However, I can’t see that is going to be a straight lift and shift scenario with drugs because you can see people driving on the road, but drugs are more covert.
“With county lines we are looking at the people who are often selling the drugs also being the victims. It’s a hugely complex situation. We have got some good people working on this and some innovative ideas, but it is not going to be one single solution like naming and shaming.”
