DOING DRUGS WITH
PAUL DILLON

Without a doubt some of the most difficult conversations you're ever likely to have with your teen are going to start with them asking questions about your behaviour as an adolescent. Although these sometimes come out of nowhere, they usually arise when your child wants to do something you don't want them to do (i.e., rules and boundaries are set and they don't like them) or they have been caught doing something they shouldn't and there's been a consequence imposed. The questions may be relatively easy to deal with such as whether you got into trouble at school, or what you got up to at parties and whether you broke rules or not but, on the other hand, they may be really challenging and have to do with your sexual behaviour during that time of your life and/or your past alcohol and other drug use. Now, if you and your partner were absolute 'angels' and you never did anything wrong (and if that is the case, both of you are quite unique!), then you really do...

The 2017 Australian Secondary Students' Alcohol and Drug Survey (ASSAD) report was recently released. This presents information on the use of tobacco, alcohol, over-the-counter drugs (for non-medicinal purposes), and other substances in school students aged 12 to 17 in Australia. Around 20,000 students from public, Catholic and independent schools from across the country participated in the survey and it provides a great insight into what is currently happening in relation to alcohol and other drug use and school-based young people. There are lots of positives in this report, particularly in regards to tobacco and alcohol. Fewer students are smoking and, those who do, smoke fewer cigarettes. The number of 12-17-year-olds who reported never drinking alcohol increased once again to more than one third (34%), up from only one in ten in 1999. Students were asked to select the most appropriate description of their drinking behaviour, with around 70% seeing themselves as 'non-dri...