Drug training gives pubs a helping hand

BarkingMad · Site Admin Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 33

Local publicans will get vital drugs awareness training thanks to a new initiative being launched by Barking and Dagenham Council.

One member of staff from each of the Borough's 80 or so public houses will get the chance to attend an invaluable drugs awareness training course, partly subsidised by the Council and Pubwatch, the local licensees' organisation.

Trainees, who will have half of their course fees paid for them by the two organisations, will learn about how to recognise drug abuse on their premises and what to do to tackle it.

Should they complete the course, candidates will receive an invaluable nationally-recognised certificate in tackling drugs on licensed premises.

The pubs that successfully complete the course will also receive "drugs aware" status from the Council and a certificate and posters to show that the premises are doing everything they can to tackle drugs.

The initiative was put together after a series of high-profile drugs raids on a number of local licensed premises.

It is hoped that the courses, which equip pub workers with the latest techniques to tackle drug misuse, will give licensees the confidence to keep drugs out of their premises.

Places are still available on the first two all-day courses, which are on Monday, 30 April at the Civic Centre, Dagenham, and Friday, 1 June at Barking Town Hall, and can cost just £55 per person (discounted from £110).

To book a place, licensees can call Becki Green on 020 8215 3007.

Cllr Mick McCarthy, Executive Member for Licensing, said: "There's no one who wants to keep drugs out of pubs more than the people who run them, and I hope these courses will give pub workers the skills they need to make a real difference.

"Everyone is behind the pubs when it comes to tackling drugs, and I believe that, by working with Pubwatch, licensees, the police and the Council, we can force drugs out of our licensed premises."

For more information: http://www.barking-dagenham.gov.uk/2-press-release/press-release-menu.cfm?item_code=2756