The study examined the strategies the children employed for declining offers and the factors and circumstances that facilitated or impeded their ability to achieve this successfully. A qualitative study was conducted based on semi-structured interviews with 10 to 12-year-old school children in the cities of Glasgow (Scotland) and Newcastle (England). Results of the study show that children that had not been exposed to drug offers expressed a high degree of confidence in their ability to deal with them. But those that had actually had to cope with such offers experienced a variety of difficulties. The ease with which an offer could be declined appeared to depend upon two factors. The first factor was who was making the offer. The second factor was the context in which it was being made. Offers from people with whom they had a close relationship and those in which pressure or encouragement were involved were particularly difficult to deal with. It was clear from the accounts that the children gave of the ways in which they had dealt with unwelcome offers that simply saying “no” was not enough and that is was also vital to get out of the situation in which the offer had been made. Many of them did not feel confident in their ability to justify their decision, especially when they might be confronted with all sorts of reassurances about the attractiveness and benign nature of the drug being offered. There is a need to better equip young people with the interpersonal tools they require to deal with the various situations they are likely to encounter in which drugs may be offered. A broadly based life skills approach to drug education may provide the best way of helping young people to deal with these situations. 15 references