Universities fight back against the spread of drugs on campus

SOS-UK welcomes the discussion of Universities UK’s (UUK) national drugs campaign in universities, on the front page of The Times newspaper today. As a member of the UUK task force which is heading up this campaign, SOS-UK’s vision is that all campuses will be rooted in drug and alcohol harm reduction and that students will feel empowered to seek support without the fear of punishment.

SOS-UK has been working with universities and students unions through the Drug and Alcohol Impact programme over the past two years, to create whole-campus approaches that focus the conversation on drug use towards reducing harm.

In today’s article, Professor Nic Beech is quoted as saying that “we want to avoid zeros —zero tolerance or zero action.” With a proven approach to making harm reduction on campus work, we have been able to demonstrate through our programme that by taking action we can make positive improvements in the way student drug use is addressed.

In January, we look forward to announcing the full results of our Drug and Alcohol Impact pilot, which will set out how this programme has provided support to institutions in a way which strongly aligns with the UUK’s emerging findings and recommendations in this area.

We believe that we have a real opportunity to take a sector-wide approach that prioritises the welfare of students in this historically challenging area.

For more information on the Drug & Alcohol Impact programme, contact Tracy at tracy.lumb@sos-uk.org.  

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