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Drug Awareness Evening of Great Interest

(21 November 2001)

The Drug Awareness Evening organised by the Cookham Youth Project on 21 November at the WI Hall did not have a very large audience, but those that came will tell those that missed it what an excellent evening it was.

 

It was led by Cyndy Gray from the Royal Borough, who has teenage children herself and knows how parents can sometimes get it so wrong or so right as far as teenagers are concerned.

 

Cyndy Gray, with Tim Alexander of the Thames Valley Police
Tim Alexander from the Thames Valley Police, who acts as a liaison with local schools in Maidenhead also came to talk about the local situation and to give a perspective from the police point of view. 

The three young people who answered questions for the adult audience
The real highlight of the evening were the three young people who had accompanied Cyndy and Tim, Simon from Desborough and the two girls from Furze Platt.  They answered questions from the parents in a way that opened everyones eyes to the situation that is facing young people today.  They said that not all young people are taking drugs and answered questions on how parents should communicate with their children and what is a real turn off as far as teenagers are concerned.

Parents have their eyes opened

The discussion went on well past the planned finish date, while the parents learnt more about what names were given to various drugs , the effects and even what they looked like.  A lot of people learnt a little bit more about what is happening amongst younger people today and also how they can communicate their worries and fears to them.

The evening was met with enormous enthusiasm and it was felt that a lot of other parents would have enjoyed such an experience.

It turned out that it was actually both the first time this had been done by both the young people and Tim Alexander.  We just hope that Cookham was a good guinea pig.

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