NCJ Number
122109
Journal
Drug Link Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Dated: (July/August 1989) Pages: 5,10-11
Editor(s)
M Ashton
Date Published
1989
Length
3 pages
Annotation
The rush to spend 300,000 pounds of British government funds before the end of March has left regional drug services with an unprecedented range of strategies through which to advertise their services and promote health education messages about drugs.
Abstract
Local originators of materials had extensive freedom. The Stockwell project produced a leaflet for drug injectors, which contained some of the most explicit harm-reduction advice ever distributed in Britain. Harm-reduction was a major theme in Trent and South East Thames. In Leicester, a free information pack provides advice for solvent users. In the same pack is the "Willy Whizz" cartoon strip. Its messages are about how to use amphetamine without being significantly harmed rather than about how not to use the drug. In Wessex and Scotland, the materials used in the campaign were more traditionally anti-drug. In Scotland messages were anti-sex to combat AIDS as well as drug use. In the Wessex region, Project Icarus was responsible for some classics of shock-horror drug information carried in an uncharacteristically sober drug information video. All the regions were characterized by professional campaigns derived from commercial marketing practice. Descriptions and evaluations of 1988-89 campaigns are to be compiled in a handbook.