Recent research shows that programmes which are properly planned and delivered can have an
impact on young peoples’ choices about using chemicals to alter consciousness and reality. However,
such school programmes on their own cannot provide lifelong protection. Like vaccines, they must
be reinforced by booster sessions at home and in the out-of-school environment. Effective
interventions, such as those which underpin this handbook, can all too easily be undermined by overt
and subconscious messages to young people that chemicals are glamourous, fun, life-enhancing and,
above all, risk free.