Members of Caerphilly Youth Forum have produced a series of films to show the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse among young people.
The three films were premiered at a borough-wide meeting of the forum on May 22 and will now be presented at schools along with workshops delivered by members of the forum.
The professional and hard-hitting films show the all-too realistic effects that substance misuse can cause, dealing with alcohol, marijuana and legal highs.
Down in One tells the story of a young woman who takes part in the ‘neck nominate’, phenomenon that has resulted in a number of deaths and the legal high film outlines the differing effects of the drugs.
Recruitment Day shows how peer pressure encourages young people to experiment with drugs which can have along term impact on future plans.
It tells the story of a woman who smokes marijuana at a party and subsequently fails an army drug test a few weeks later.
The films were produced by Zoom Cymru, who encourage young people to get involved with digital media, and starred members of the youth forum as actors.
The group have been working on the films since October and hope to develop workshops to take around schools by the start of the new term in September.
Joel Price, 18, Chair of Caerphilly Youth Forum, said: “We hope these short films and workshop materials that we are working to produce will offer real benefits, and help reinforce to young people the key messages about the dangers and effects of drugs and alcohol, which they can then take with them into their adult lives”.
Joely Ryland, a project worker at Drug and Alcohol Youth Support, who helped with the films, said the films needed to be realistic but shocking at the same time.
She said: “We wanted to show the ifs, buts and whys of what happens after you take drugs.
“We are not just targeting people who don’t attend school and down-and-outs as the issues are everyday occurrences and what happens in the films could happen to you.”
Caerphilly County Borough council’s Youth Champion, Cllr Mike Prew, added: “We want to go around schools and put a strong message out, especially around legal highs.
“You can just go online and order them so we have to educate parents as well as prevention starts at home.”