Move to outlaw two ‘Party’ drugs

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Title – Move to outlaw two ‘Party’ drugsSource – www.bbc.co.uk
Date 21st May 2009

The illegal drug scene is one which changes constantly; it is difficult enough for the police and authorities to keep up with let alone employers and employees who may never or only sporadically have come into contact with drug use.

The scope of substance abuse stretches further than ever; from the bizarre to the truly horrific. The problem is that generally the ‘new trends’ tend to be proceeded by myth and hype almost always accompanied by untruths surrounding dangers and addictiveness.

It amazes me to this day the number of people I meet who still believe urban myths such as ‘cocaine not being addictive’ or that ‘ecstasy is safe’; yet the grapevine is often listened to more than the science almost always more than the government.

This is normally simple denial on behalf of those who are addicted or who want to use illegal drugs. Of more concern yet is that these untruths are generated by those sales people and marketing executives whose income and lifestyle relies on ever growing consumption of their products; we usually call them drug dealers.

Here we have another good example of ‘good marketing’. The use of the word ‘herbal’ automatically implies that somehow these drugs are not toxic and potentially even good for you. The use of the word herbal suggests a pure, non-chemical, non-toxic natural source. It certainly does not reflect the potentially lethal drug it refers to.

The government seems to be taking measures now to reclassify these drugs and close those loopholes which exist. This is a process which will continue as long a people are willing to believe those drug dealers who are always looking to push the boundaries of the law, in pursuit of profit at any cost.

Drug use and drug dealing can have dramatic effects on business; both in employee productivity and on the reduced number of customers who will be attracted to businesses which suffer the negative effects of drug use and drug dealing.

In any business there can only be one approach to illegal drugs and that is the adoption of a ‘Zero Tolerance Policy’ and enforcement of that policy through Drug Awareness training. We can provide you with this training and using training aids such as our

Drugs Box our training provides realistic and client focussed training which your employees can relate to.

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector including The National Certificate for Licensees Drug Awareness (NCLDA). For other sectors our bespoke Drug Awareness (DA) courses, which examine illegal drugs, their effects and the drug litter synonymous with their use, are specifically designed to reflect the nature of our clients working environment. Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course complements these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and drug related behaviour.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

Dying for a drink / Tell people what is a safe level and what is not

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Title – Dying for a drink / Tell people what is a safe level and what is notSource – The Times
Date – 21st May 2009

Undoubtedly there are many people in the UK who have a bad relationship with alcohol and I don’t think you’ll find too many people who would not acknowledge that alcohol has a detrimental effect on health and on communities when consumed in excess.

The question is how we redress that balance without preaching at people, patronising them or scaremongering.

No one likes being told what to do, let alone by a government who don’t exactly hold the moral high ground. However people are willing to accept well presented information, from reliable sources without a hidden agenda and most importantly they demand to be allowed to make their own decisions.

Whenever I run a

National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) course and we get to the section on the negative effect of alcohol on health or when I run Certificate in Alcohol Awareness (CAA) courses or an Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing courses (ARAR), I get a frightening number of blank faces when I demonstrate the consequences of chronic drinking.

This always particularly surprises me on the NCPLH courses as candidates have usually been working in the Licensed Retail Sector for some time at that point. Not only that, but when we hand out the ‘wheels’ which allow them to see the number of units each drink contains, I can see them working out their own unit count; the reactions vary from candidate to candidate, but frowns and nervous giggles are not uncommon.

We have also been showing the governments last round of advertisements on the ‘Unit system’ (see You may be drinking more than you think) and we generally find that most candidates either do not recognise the advertisements or that the subtlety was lost on them.

Interestingly, I never find any resentment from those I teach when we talk about the number of units which can be consumed in ‘safe’ levels; from our feedback forms we find that our trainers ‘experience’ and ‘knowledge’ are rated very highly by candidates attending our courses; maybe that is the trick.

Maybe it is more simple than that; we tell candidates the facts and present them in a straight forward manner, we treat people as adults and we credit them with the intelligence to make their own decisions based on the information available to them.

I don’t for a second claim that our courses stop people binge drinking or developing chronic alcohol addiction, but I do claim that if we are able to at least pass on the information in a constructive manner then the government should be able to come up with a plan for this to happen in a wider spectrum. It may not be the solution, but it would go some way to relieving some of the problem related to alcohol consumption.

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector to help them sell alcohol more responsibly. These include; The Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) designed for front-line staff to help them meet their statutory requirements; The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence; Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course compliments these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and alcohol related disorder.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

Booze code on the way / Binge pubs face closure

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Title – Booze code on the way / Binge pubs face closure
Source – The London Paper / The Evening Standard
Date - 13th May 2009

There I was teaching an

NCPLH course yesterday indicating to the candidates what the current Licensing Act 2003 represented to their businesses, how it was likely that as the focus slowly turned away from the economic recession, it would surely fall back on licensing again and how the current voluntary codes of conduct would undoubtedly be made mandatory at some point in the not too distant future.

It does seem from these reports to be heading that way; but should we be worried?

I don’t think so at this stage, that is not to say that the government will not do something stupid or irrational at the same time as legislating in favour of Responsible Alcohol Retailing… I’m not saying that no one will be affected, but those who are should really take the opportunity to look again at their business model, because the ‘£10 all you can drink promotions’ are really not a long term business strategy. Premises should be able to attract customers for better reasons then the volume of alcohol they can consume.

It seems that under the new codes being proposed irresponsible promotions would be considered the same as an ‘unauthorised licensable activity’ and attract a penalty of a £20,000 fine and / or 6 months imprisonment.

These new codes are again going to make it doubly important to train employees to help them understand their responsibilities and courses like our National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) will be the ideal place to start.

The economic downturn has had a fundamental and devastating impact on the Licensed Retail Sector, pubs have and are closing at an alarming rate, the government have not helped with the increases in duty and increased legislation; however it has had the effect of helping the strong well run establishments stand out and although almost none have come out unscathed, those that survive will thrive once the worst is over.

What these well run establishments have in common is; they are run professionally; they train all employees to a high standard; they attract customers to their premises not their alcohol; they continuously examine their business and change to reflect the community in which they are located; they provide excellent customer service; and they do not need to be tied to a code of conduct, because their business activities far exceed the minimum requirements in retailing alcohol responsibly which in itself is good business practice.

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector to help them sell alcohol more responsibly. These include; The Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) designed for front-line staff to help them meet their statutory requirements; The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence; Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course compliments these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and alcohol related disorder.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

On-the-spot fines blamed for keeping crimes out of court

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Title – On-the-spot fines blamed for keeping crimes out of court
Source – The Times
Date 5th May 2009

It seems that the system for prosecuting offenders is in a bit of a mess; more importantly has lost the confidence of much of the public and by the same token businesses and the employees who work within them.

On many of the courses we run, be they in the

Licensed Retail Sector or for companies that have to deal with aggressive or even violent customers or members of the public for whom we run Conflict Management courses, we hear the same comments; people are sceptical not only on the speed of response they will get if they call the police, but more importantly what the police can actually do.

Now I should say I am a great supporter of the police, I think the vast majority are in it for the right reasons and are dedicated professionals. Undoubtedly they are inward looking and somewhat isolated, but that is the fault of others rather then themselves. No matter what they do they seem to come under fire. When they take a strong approach they are accused of being overzealous and when they take a more reserved approach they are accused of being ineffective. Much like the goalkeeper in football, when they let in an easy goal they are chastised; however for the hundreds of saves they make a season, few ever receive the praise they deserve.

Add to this the pressure they feel being hamstrung by legislation that seems to favour the criminal, be unenforceable or ineffective and it becomes not only a job for the brave and dedicated but one for the exceptionally patient as well.

The problem with all of this is it lets too many people down. Because of the lack of confidence people have in the system they also lack confidence or the will to challenge it and rather choose to turn a blind eye which exasperates the whole situation.

The law is not a complete ass and having an understanding of the law gives you more confidence to make it work, be that as a Personal Licence Holder or as an individual facing issues of Workplace Violence. There will be many situations where punishments simply don’t fit the crime; I have yet to meet someone who has been assaulted who felt that the punishment (if any) handed out to the perpetrator came even close to being proportionate. Those who are assaulted in the course of their duties, tend to feel even more frustrated; they feel not only are the punishments not there to deter offenders or punish them, but that if they themselves take any action they are likely to be the one prosecuted.

This is simply not true; well at least it is not true if you understand the law, have professional and well trained staff and take a proactive approach to preventing such instances happening in the first place.

At Beyond The Blue our whole ethos is to prevent such occurrences happening ‘out of the blue’ and helping our clients see ‘Beyond The Blue’. During many of our courses we look at the law and at ways to make it work; not to make it work in your favour, but simply to ‘make it work’; contrary to what many might believe the law does work, unfortunately many ‘criminals’ ‘understand’ the law better than those they commit crimes against. This leads to what can feel like a criminal justice system which leans towards the criminal.

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the licensed retail sector to help them sell alcohol more responsibly. These include; The Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) designed for front-line staff to help them meet their statutory requirements; The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence; Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course compliments these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and alcohol related disorder.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.