Today PC Sarah visited our class to do a workshop titled 'It's Your Choice'. The workshop focused on 'Drugs' and aimed to help us understand that drugs may be legal, illegal or medicines. Through discussion and hands-on activities, PC Sarah helped us to understand the importance of making positive choices in our lives based on a knowledge of what is helpful and what can be harmful. |
In groups, we worked together to discuss the names of any drugs we knew, who might use drugs, why people might use drugs and the dangers of using drugs. Later we played a sorting game where we had to decide whether examples of different drugs were helpful drugs or harmful drugs. We learnt that there are important health reasons why people take medicines and how these can improve the quality of someone's life. We talked in our groups about 'why' a person might be prescribed medicines by a doctor and our ideas included headaches, tonsillitis, having a tooth out, asthma and epilepsy. We talked about how many people who have different conditions and suffer from illnesses have to take medicine everyday. These include people with heart disease, people with high blood pressure, diabetics and people who suffer from hayfever. We all agreed that it is dangerous to take too much medicine and that it is important that we follow the prescribed dosage decided by the doctor or pharmacist. |
This afternoon, we learnt that there are some drugs which are damageing to take such as heroin, cocaine and ecstasy. People who abuse drugs such as these can face difficulties in their relationships with others, changes in their behaviour and character, and in some cases death. By the end of the session, we all agreed with PC Sarah that a drug is something that changes the way your mind and body works - sometimes in a positive way and sometimes in a negative way. |