Parents

We hope you have found this guide useful and have taken away our key messages. There are some great conversations to be had and we hope that there is never a 'final word' between you and your child. Rather, we encourage a productive, ongoing conversation on not only drugs and alcohol, but risk-taking behaviour in general. These ongoing conversations will be key to your child's development and awareness on these controversial and tricky issues and will put them in good standing when they face real-life scenarios.

Perhaps the two most common phrases young people are indoctrinated with are drugs are bad and drugs kill. Whilst it is true that all drugs carry risks, and indeed some are very dangerous, lecturing hormonally-fueled teenagers in this way is unlikely to stop them from consuming, nor will it keep them safe. Think carefully about your feelings towards this topic. Above everything, it is likely that your most primary concern is your child's safety. There are many dangerous things that people do every day, whether that's driving fast, having unprotected sex or looking down at their phone whilst crossing the road. People will continue to do these hazardous things and simply telling them that they these activities are bad and could kill them is not going to stop them. Providing more insight and education on these topics is far more likely to induce positive behaviours than commands and rules. Let's create a sensible, safe discussion with young people and ensure they have the tools and knowledge to make more measured and wise decisions.

As a parent, you cannot fully control what your child chooses to consume - you are not with them all hours of their day - thus, we recommend you adopt a different approach. We must accept that children will be exposed to drugs at some point. It therefore follows that children are more likely to be safer if they have discussed drugs in a truthful and transparent way, as opposed to scaremongering and fabricated claims. Only then will you start to have a greater peace of mind.

We would like to wish you the very best of luck in your journey of talking with your child about drugs and alcohol and we hope that you spread this guide to family and friends!