Woody, the former drummer with David Bowie's band, The Spiders, is now a trustee of a drug rehabilitation centre.

During his music career spanning 30 years, Woody has played and toured with some of the best - Dexys Midnight Runners, Paul McCartney, Edgar Winter, Art Garfunkel and more recently, Joe Elliott and Phil Collin of Def Leppard.
He said that he saw what drugs did to friends in the music business and that it is a very different picture from the glamour fans see on stage.

He has seen musicians behind the scenes crash and burn from constant drug-taking - and is concerned to see how widespread drugs have become over the last three decades or so.

As a result, he became a trustee for Narconon, a drug rehabilitation centre based in Hastings.

"Drug testing in schools is not the answer to the drugs problem," said Woody, formerly of Victoria Road, Driffield. "It wasn't a deterrent in the 60s and 70s and it won't be now."

He said that scare tactics did not work and that it was far better to talk straight with children and to show respect for their ability to think for themselves.

"Effective drug education in schools does work. Fear of being caught is not an effective deterrent,"Woody added.
"With the stress on education, one is making an informed choice. It has been found that when people do have the correct information about what drugs actually do, they end up not taking drugs on their own self-determinism.

"The correct target is the kids before they take or consider taking drugs; the target is not after they have already started on the slippery slope."