INFORMATION about drugs should not be given in a threatening or unpleasant form this is the thinking behind the Dutch way of dealing with substance misuse and young people. The Trimbos Institute, the Netherlands's Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, develops materials for pupils in secondary schools for use in a subject called "the Healthy School and Stimulants". The programme is five years old and is used in about 350 schools, one third of the country's second level schools.

Hettie Rensink, who works at the institute on the programme, told last month's EU conference in Dublin about the Dutch approach. Booklets used in the programme are pleasing to the eye, she said. The thinking, she explained, is that an approach which uses "the warning finger" and arouses fear will only provoke young people. "Stimulants will simply have the power of attraction," she said.

The threatening approach, she believes, results in pupils experimenting with a substance. "Research shows that increasing social skills in combination with the transfer of knowledge is the most effective method," she said.

The aim is to prevent "experimenting behaviour" from getting out of hand, according to the official Healthy School and Stimulants prospectus developed by the Trimbos Institute. "Pupils say that because of the project they are more capable of saying `no' if someone offers them tobacco, alcohol or cannabis," it says.

Participating schools are impressed by the project, according to the Trimbos Institute. Pupils are enthusiastic and they enjoy the lessons - and research shows an increase in awareness of the influence of group pressure.