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Anti-Drug Awareness

I think that the hon. Gentleman has made a valid point. I visited the south west last year and talked to some youth workers. I asked them why parents do not support their youngsters in getting treatment or better education. Sadly, one worker said—their reply summed it up for me—““Well, doing that and seeing their children doing better would make their lives even worse.”” That was a stark statement about how some communities, whatever the debate may be about, are quite broken. We need to look at early intervention and consider how we can break the intergenerational problems that have been highlighted this morning. However, that does not detract from the essential need to give support and information to parents who want to be good parents and want to see their children do better, while recognising that there is a small cohort who take the more negative view that has, sadly, been relayed to me and to the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington. We have to put education in a wider perspective. I had the pleasure of visiting the St. Neots community alcohol partnership earlier this year, where I heard how education was being bound into the process. Talking to the kids who had been through the educational programmes, I saw how the process built links and brought together retailers, the police, trading standards agencies and drug awareness charities in a whole approach. That was a good lesson to learn. Certainly, I will monitor closely how that programme is rolled out. I hear that it is being expanded into other counties and other areas of the country. It is an interesting and important project to follow, enabling us to see how a community and partnership-based approach can be effective in reducing alcohol consumption and antisocial behaviour and the crime that goes with it. In conclusion, anti-drug awareness approaches may be summed up in three words: prevention, in terms of focus; partnership, as an essential element of delivery in communities; and perspective, in terms of the wider social context in which they may sit and the other policies that they are intended to supplement as an overarching approach to reduce the harm of drugs and the crime that may lead from that. I was struck by a quote from the pamphlet by the hon. Member for Nottingham, North, which states that the early intervention objective is nothing less than an effort"““to replace a vicious cycle with a virtuous circle; to help every child become a capable and responsible parent who in turn will raise better children who themselves will learn, attain and raise functional families of their own.””" That is a powerful message, which the hon. Gentleman expressed very well this morning. We shall certainly focus on implementation and the approaches that might give effect to the themes that he rightly identified as important in making a difference in this serious issue.