By Oliver Vanchev 10W and Winston Brew 10G

On Tuesday 25th February, year 10 were lucky enough to receive a visit from Kim, a representative of the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation, a charity dedicated to delivering drug and alcohol education workshops to secondary school students and advocating to the addition of drug awareness material in PSHE (personal development) lessons. 

Using multiple real-world examples, like the heartbreaking story of Dan (a very saddening case of a teenage boy sadly passing away after taking illicit drugs with his friends) and the short video clip of how illegal drugs really are made, the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs foundation managed to convey the dangers of not only legal drugs but also illicit, recreational  drugs, allowing us to get a deeper understanding of not only the processes used in their creation, but the effects and dangers they may have on us. The manufacturing video, displaying 2 masked men (real-world distributors) mixing a plethora of unidentified substances, illuminated the lack of care and safety used in the manufacturing process. Furthermore, this went to show how these distributors only care about money, and in the case of Dan, do not care about the after-effects that may be caused due to the lack of attention and sanitation.  

Furthermore, the use of a live demonstration calling up 5 people to the front of the stage to drink shots of glass went to show the undetectability of these drugs, as the shots of water all seemed the same, yet one of them had been spiked with a pinch of salt. This further exemplified the dangers that drugs may pose if you (unknowingly) were to be affected by a similar lacing.  

In conclusion, thanks to the foundation’s efforts, they have managed to educate us on not only the dangers of such illicit drugs but also be aware of how they might contain absolutely anything, affect different people, and harm our bodies.