Academics slam youth alcohol education programme

New Zealand academics have slammed a live theatre programme designed to warn young students of the dangers of underage drinking. The theatre programme is an interactive workshop called Smashed, and it's supported by the alcohol industry-funded organisation, The Tomorrow Project. In an editorial in the New Zealand Medical Association journal released today University of Otago professor Jennie Connor says it's time to ban all interaction of the alcohol, tobacco and unhealthy food industries with our education system. Professor Connor's study refers to a paper by the the executive director of Alcohol Healthwatch, Dr Nicki Jackson, who told our reporter Tracy Neal they want the programme stopped. But the head of the Life Education Trust, that delivers the programme in New Zealand schools, says it's a modern approach that works. John O'Connell says it's being undermined by people who know little about it.