Know The Signs
Illicit drug crime is one of the key concerns currently affecting Australians. In April 2022 the Federal Government announced a funding commitment of $3.5m to support a Crime Stoppers campaign visiting local communities across Australia to encourage citizens to be active in sharing what they know about the manufacture and supply of illicit drugs. The campaign focuses on providing information to community members about the processes used by organised crime and those higher up the illicit drug trade. Any information provided by the community will be used by the police and other law enforcement agencies to unsettle domestic drug markets, disrupt national and international supply chains and hamper activities of criminal networks, particularly organised crime groups.
In this lesson students will explore how to identify signs of drug crime activity.
- Provide students with the key facts of the recent Federal Government funding provided to Crime Stoppers Australia to encourage community members to share what they know about the manufacture and supply of illicit drugs.
- Show students the video ABC 7.30: Drugs may contain a ‘biological calling card’ explaining that the new campaign is focusing on the manufacturers of the drugs sold by the street dealers. Discuss the key points of the report.
- Explain to the class that they will be exploring the Know the Signs resources on the Crime Stoppers Victoria Break the class into five groups. Name the groups A, B, C, D and E. Provide:
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- group A with copies of Know The Signs: How To Detect A Clandestine Drug Lab
- group B with a computer and link to How To Spot A Crop House and copies of Know The Signs: How To Detect A Cannabis Crop House (Cch)
- group C with a computer with the link to Do You Know A Drug Dealer Online
- group D with a computer and a link to Have You Seen Unexplained Wealth.
- Group E with a computer and a link to They’ll never know it was you who protected yourself and your family.
Ask each group to read through their sheets and/or watch their videos, discuss the information provided and write down the key points. Once completed, form new groups of students including a member from groups A-E. Give them three minutes each to share the key points of their Know the Signs scenario. Remind students to ask clarifying questions if they don’t understand everything that has been said to them or they need more information. Conduct an Options Explosion, (a Project Zero Thinking Routine) to explore what students could do if faced with each of the scenarios listed above.
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- Write each of the scenarios on the interactive whiteboard or on a large piece of butcher’s paper and give each group a number of post it notes.
- Ask them to think about each of the scenarios and write on a post it note what they might do if they had information about the drug criminal activity. Emphasise that there may be a number of options and to write them down and add them to the relevant scenario.
- Once everyone has posted their notes, read through them individually discussing with the class why the action is most appropriate or not. If Crime Stoppers isn’t mentioned, mention the organisation, its role and that they will learn more in the next lesson.
- Conclude the lesson by asking students to use an app such as Adobe Express to create a poster highlighting the signs of one of the Know the Signs scenarios. These will be completed and collected in the next lesson.