Misuse of Drugs (Hansard, 18 March 1985)

§ Mr. John Patten

on 27 February my right hon. Friend announced the launch of a campaign of information and education to help to prevent drug misuse, and particularly heroin misuse. This complements the various drug treatment initiatives already undertaken by the Department.

The campaign is a product of discussions in the interdepartmental Ministerial group on the misuse of drugs 375W and will form one part of the Goverment's plans to prevent drug misuse in conjunction with the activities of Home Office, Her Majesty's Customs and Excise, Department of Education and Science and the other United Kingdom Health Departments.

The first stage of the campaign is aimed at getting better information to parents and professionals in particular. As announced on 27 February, three leaflets for parents have been widely distributed to all general practitioners, health authorities, family practitioner committees, community health councils and local authorities — and are now available. Newspaper advertising in mid-March will help to ensure that all parents are aware of the leaflets. In addition the Central Office of Information has produced two short TV public information films which BBC and IBA have agreed to show.

The second part and main thrust of the campaign will be aimed specifically at young people. Ministers took the decision to pursue such a campaign only after intensive qualitative research by an independent company, Andrew Irving Associates. This asked whether a campaign should be mounted at all, whether there were significant dangers of a counter-productive effect and what messages and modes of delivery might be best received by young people. Their research found that most young people were already aware of illegal drugs — particularly heroin — but that they were often misinformed of the real dangers. They found no reason why young people should not respond to a careful presentation of the facts. They also recommended that any campaign would maximise its positive effects by concentrating on heroin: because it represented the greatest threat and because it would be extremely difficult to convey an accurate message about misuse of all drugs.

An advertising agency Yellowhammer Co. Ltd. was commissioned to develop the campaign and has been working closely with both the initial researchers and another company, Cragg Ross and Dawson Research Partnership, to identify and test the most effective messages and presentation. Careful fieldwork takes time and this second part of the campaign will start towards the end of April when TV advertisements will begin to appear in a series of showings over the next year. Our approach will present the real consequences — mental, physical, social, financial—of taking heroin.

In order to monitor the effectiveness of the campaign a market research agency, Research Bureau Limited, have been commissioned to establish baseline data on young people's attitudes before the campaign starts and, periodically, to evaluate any changes in attitude as the campaign proceeds. In this way, we shall have the information with which to consider adjustments to the emphasis of the campaign for optimum results. Monitoring will also enable us to decide whether and how the campaign might continue in subsequent years.

On the question of cost, I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by my right hon. and learned Friend to my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton, West (Mr. Sackville) on 13 December at columns 585–86. It is expected that some £2 million will be expended on the campaign and related initiatives before the end of 1985–86 — including the production of a supportive video training package for professionals along the lines of the Department's award winning solvent misuse package, "Illusions".