Drug education

Planning includes developing strategies for helping children and young people engage with relevant drug-related issues during opportunistic and brief contacts with them as well as during more structured sessions. Drug education enables children, youth and adults to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to appreciate the benefits of living healthily (which may or may not include the use of psychoactive substances), promote responsibility towards the use of drugs and relate these to their own actions and those of others, both now and in their future lives. It also provides opportunities for people to reflect on their own and others' attitudes to various psychoactive substances, their use and the people who use them.

Drug education can be given in numerous forms, some more effective than others. Examples include advertising and awareness raising campaigns such as the UK Government's FRANK campaign or the US "media campaign".[1] In addition there are school based drug education programs like DARE or that currently being evaluated by the UK Blueprint Programme.[2] In efforts to prevent problematic substance use, drug education may perpetuate myths and stereotypes about psychoactive substances and people who use them.[3]

Drug education can also take less explicit forms; an example of this is the Positive Futures Programme, funded by the UK government as part of its drug strategy. This programme uses sport and the arts as catalysts to engage young people on their own turf, putting them in contact with positive role models (coaches/trained youth workers). After building a trusting relationship with a young person, these role models can gradually change attitudes towards drug use and steer the young person back into education, training and employment. This approach reaches young people who have dropped out of mainstream education. It also has additional benefits for the community in reduced crime and anti-social behaviour.[4]

School-based drug education began with the anti-alcohol "temperance education" programmes of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in the United States and Canada in the late 19th century.[5] In many respects, the WCTU's progressive education agenda set the template for much of what has been done since in the name of drug education.[6]

Past research into drug education has indicated that to be effective it must involve engaging, interactive learning strategies that stimulate higher-order thinking, promote learning and be transferable to real life circumstances. Current challenges from this approach exist in adopting evidence-based school drug education programmes.[7] Currently, in the majority of countries where preventive drug education programs and courses exist, they are established and funded by the Government. These education programs aim to educate adolescents about illicit drug use in an effort to prevent illegal drug use while highlighting the dangers of problematic substance use.[8]

The Australian Government has implemented a range of drug education programs through the National Drug Education Strategy (NDES) by providing schools with effective drug education programmes. The program aims to manage drug related issues and incidents within schools .[9]

On 6 December 2015 the Australian Government Department of Health launched the Positive Choices portal as part of its response to the findings from the National Ice Taskforce report.[10][11] Positive Choices is an online portal that facilitates access to interactive evidence-based drug education resources and prevention programs for school communities. Positive Choices builds on existing drug education resources developed by researchers at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre such as the Climate Schools programs that have been proven to reduce alcohol and drug related harms and increase student well-being.[12][13][14]

The Australian Department of Health and Aging identified that analgesics (90%), alcohol (80–90%) and tobacco (30–60%) were the most widely utilised substances among adolescents. In addition to this, cannabis was another commonly used illicit substance that accounted for 33% usage among adolescents aged 14–17 years.[15]

In addition to government-funded programs, a number of not-for-profit organisations (such as Life Education Australia also provide drug education programs to adolescents. These preventative programs aim to deliver a progressive approach that will motivate and encourage young people to make positive decisions in life. Emphasis within these programs is also placed in focusing on deterring peer pressure as a means of empowering adolescents and promoting autonomy. This approach reaches 750,000 primary and secondary students in Australia each year.[16]

D.A.R.E stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. In the United States, D.A.R.E is implemented in elementary school classrooms, 5th grade to educate students on drugs effects and temptations they may encounter. The program implemented in public and private school systems to prepare 5th graders for middle school, as well as all further education.[17] Although D.A.R.E is implemented to prevent students from doing drugs in the future, there is little evidence to suggest it actually prevents students from doing drugs. In the article, “Long-Term Impact of Drug Abuse Resistance Education” by Dukes and Stein, a chi-squared test was performed to see if there was a significant difference between high school students that received D.A.R.E training and those who did not receive D.A.R.E and its relation to drug use. The study found that there is no significant difference between the drug use of students that received D.A.R.E and students that did not. One of the main reasons the authors mentioned D.A.R.E had little correlation with Drug use is that there are other external causes that only affect some students, which can lead them into the direction of drug use. Additionally, the time that students received D.A.R.E (5th grade), and the time that the students encounter drugs may be many years after, so students may have little remembrance of the program. However, the United States schools continue to implement the program in classrooms because the police officers that come into classrooms can serve as community role models to students, and all students are different so it may steer them away from drugs in the future.[17]

Steroid use is a common form of drug use in high schools across the United States. Many students, specifically males, use steroids to increase their performance in athletic events. Many professional athletes, for example professional cyclist, Lance Armstrong, and former professional MLB player, Alex Rodriguez both were nationally recognized as steroid users. Additionally in an article in the Journal of Molecular & Cellular Endocrinology, it states that in a survey of 212 Canadian national track athletes, over 10% of them would take an illegal drug if it was undetectable, if it could help them win an Olympic gold medal.[18] Many adolescents idolize athletes, so when they find out there is a way to enhance their performance, and that elite athletes are using them, steroids may be used by students.

An article in the Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse ran a study on two southern California high schools in middle class suburbs, and the high school students' use of anabolic-androgenic steroids. It surveyed students on if they use steroids, knew the side effects of steroids, and additionally their use of other prevalent drugs. The article specifically found that male students that were athletes were more likely to use steroids than students that are female or non-athlete students in general. Most students that participated in steroids played the sports, football or soccer, and were most likely to do steroids if they participated in both sports.[19] Professional sports, influence young athletes, and when professional athletes participate in drugs, it can lead young adults to use drugs without realizing the side effects and consequences that come along with drug use.

Also, a study in the journal of Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy discusses alcohol and drug prevention programs in Australia for students in grades 8 and 9. It goes into detail about the student's between 13 and 15 years old, to see if alcohol and drug prevention programs have an actual effect on preventing substance abuse. The study comes to the conclusion that when the students went through a drug and alcohol prevention program, they were less likely to develop a drug or alcohol problem.[20]

The University of North Carolina Greensboro has researched the drug prevention program, All Stars, Sr.,. The program is developing education through technology (videos), so that health education programs could reach schools in rural communities. The technology programs would provide drug/ health education in general with qualified instructors, in areas that do not have programs.[21]

Recent studies have identified that a gap between the theory of education programmes and the implementation exists.[7] This is regards to the collaborative learning approach and difficulties with teachers adopting these interactive drug education programmes. The practical implications of these findings are that professional training and support are required to increase the effectiveness of teaching staff, and the uniform implementation of drug curriculum.[7] Additional drug education research in the future should acknowledge the complexities of implementing these programmes in a school environment. Furthermore, additional support for teachers, counselors, school administrators and other education professionals should be integrated as a means of being realistic about what constitutes effective drug education and maintaining a high quality standard.[22]

Preventative drug education has been introduced in classrooms. Programs such as D.A.R.E. and the Just Say No campaign were introduced in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s, however research has shown no evidence that these programs were effective.[23][24][25][26]

• Alcohol education
• Responsible drug use

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Teaching Elementary School Health Education/Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs

• Blueprint
• Drug Education Forum
• Positive Futures Programme
• Talk to Frank
• Positive Choices Drug Education portal
• Climate Schools Australia
• Why "Just Say No" Doesn't Work – Scientific American