USI SAYS it will be distributing 2,000 posters and 200,000 leaflets to colleges around the country as part of its drug awareness campaign. launched last week.

The campaign comes shortly after what is believed to be the State's 20th ecstasy related death, that of a 17 year old from Donneycarney, Dublin.

Launching the campaign, USI president Colman Byrne said existing programmes that aim to dissuade young people from drug use were "completely ineffective" and said that funding should be channelled into "harm reduction education" by State agencies.

USI is also seeking to use peer leadership to promote drug prevention initiatives and has suggested the possibility of drug testing at dance events.

If State agencies do take harm reduction initiatives on board it could bring them closer to last year's controversial drugs education campaign by UCD students' union, which advised students considering experimentation with ecstasy to start with only half a tablet and to maintain the proper intake of liquid.

"We feel that the approach to exam time and the summer work period provides the best opportunity to inform our target audience at a time when they might think about using drugs." Byrne said. "Our materials will be innovative and approach the issue in a youth friendly fashion."

Meanwhile, USI and the National Union of Students have elected Nigel O'Connor, deputy president of the students' union in Queen's University, as Northern convenor for NUS/USI for the coming year. O'Connor (22), an English graduate. will be responsible for promoting initiatives at student and community level in the region.

Community relations, says O'Connor, are a "very vital part" of the work of NUS/USI, which share responsibility for student representation in the North. "The community relations programme of the region has been an excellent programme in the past but I want to see the programme get a higher degree of participation from the student body," he says. O'Connor is anxious to see the programme expand to attract not only more students but other elements of the community.

O'Connor will also have to deal with the findings of the Deering inquiry into further education. which is likely to have a knock on effect for higher education, including new methods of funding for courses and the possibility of mergers by institutions.

"I see it as a positive development provided it is funded adequately," he says. Students in the further education sector are particularly vulnerable because of their relatively weak students' union representation. O'Connor hopes to ensure more continuity in student representation in further education colleges.