Substance Abuse Prevention Paper

Since I was young I was told I was a quiet child, very mousy like who was always hiding behind her mother’s leg. I would never leave my mother's side and if I was greeted by a stranger, I would retreat from them, so I was shy. My mom would encourage me to go and say hi to others or play with a child that asked me to join in a game. I would at times play with them, but I would always go back to my mom when I had enough playing or was stressed. While I am comfortable to explore and later going to my mom when I want to be safe, I was avoidance of others and never felt comfortable, but I did have fun when I was comfortable.

Our purpose: “To identify and eliminate disparities related to alcohol, tobacco and other drug use in the youths of Metro Atlanta.”

There are many different programs that are established to keep individuals from initially using drugs. Many of these prevention programs target juveniles. Most people first experiment drugs in their adolescence years. Many prevention programs cover ranges of approaches and issues. These ranges and approaches include the dissemination of factual information about drugs and their consequences, the building of self-esteem, taking responsibility for making choices, and learning how to handle peer pressure. Many people believe that drug use is a cause or contributor to criminal activity. Drug prevention and treatment programs may be effective at limiting or eliminating other crime.

Typically, LST is implemented during all three years of middle school. Long-term research on LST has shown that the program is effective through high school. For example, in, five and a half years after baseline data collection, students in the LST group were 23% less likely to try marijuana, 21% less probable to try cigarettes, and 11% less likely to have been inebriated compared to the control group that did not participate in LST. Over 90% of students in both the LST group and control group drank alcohol at least once. Although there were significant results for the initiation of substance use, there were no significant effects of the frequency of substance use between groups. However, the study does suggest that the subgroup of participants who engaged in substance use behaviors before the start of the program decreased their use of alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. Public school teachers implemented the LST program, providing evidence for this program’s potential effectiveness in other school settings. However,

He also repeatedly reported to me that he gained a lot from the seven-day program and found a renewed sense of energy from his fellow adolescent cohort and guest speakers whom he found inspirational and their stories compelling. And after about a month into our sessions, John expressed his desire to ween off substances, and stated that he had tried the week before to no avail; he was only able to stay off substances for two days, even after knowing the potential repercussions of use. Although two days can be considered a small victory, my reviewing of John’s 48 hours of abstaining did two things: first, it conveyed to him that change was indeed feasible albeit onerous, and second, acted as a pivot point of conversation and led to a discussion about some of the reasons how John was able to refrain from smoking for that period of time. In addition to my harkening on his success to evoke a sense of accomplishment, my open-ended questioning and utilizing extemporaneous 1-10 rating scales—which gauged his level of motivation and anxiety when abstaining—helped evoke change talk by ascertaining ways John could achieve a higher rating; it also helped them identify some of the obstacles that were hindering the progress of reducing cannabis use. I also combined rating scales with hypothetical thinking (i.e., “what do you think if would have to increase your level of motivation from your present 4 to a 6?”), helped John think of ways he could go about overcoming his obstacles and for me to bolster his self-efficacy (Miller and Rollnick, 2013). I was able to instill to John the key motivator of belief in the possibility of change, and that he was responsible for achieving his set goals. I also asserted that my role was to support him in his ability to achieve his

The study involved students in Grades 9 to 12 in several schools in Ontario and Alberta. Based on the results of the said study, “students who used e-cigarettes within 30 days before the start of the study were more likely to have started and still be smoking regular cigarettes a year later.”

Studies have shown the drug prevention program, DARE, is very ineffective and many schools have stopped using DARE. Instead educators are now using other means to prevent substance abuse in children, but these programs are costly. There are very helpful programs and rehab facilities used by children and young adults who have abused drugs or are addicted. These programs can be paid for by insurance companies and the government and is a step forward in the right direction for adolescent drug users. Ideally, in the future, drug prevention programs will become more effective and the government will spend more money on prevention programs to stop youths from using drugs as opposed to rehab programs after youths have become addicted to

Substance abuse is when a person uses too much of a substance or when a person uses a substance incorrectly. The substance can be a medicine, a drug, alcohol, tobacco, or a chemical. Substance abuse during pregnancy can harm a baby's health. Poisons from the substance can damage the baby’s organs. If the substance abuse causes the mother to have poor nutrition, it also causes the baby to have poor nutrition.

Make sure that your local schools have programs in place to educate children about the risks posed by drugs and alcohol. You need to arm young people in your community with knowledge about the consequences of abusing drink and drugs. Talk to school staff about how they tackle the issue with students or perhaps set up a support group for parents to teach them how best to educate their children about the effects of substance abuse.

According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) more than forty million Americans smoke or use some type of tobacco product. Many adult tobacco user admit they starting using tobacco while in their teens. Many adolescents who are currently smoking will continue into adulthood if the appropriate interventions are not applied, i.e smoking cessation education, age appropriate programs along with smoking cessation products. Currently there are very few programs developed out there that specifically address this problem dispute the best efforts of the CDC ("CDC," 2015).

leading to heavy drinking or drug use, early interventions may prevent children or young adults

DARE is an anti-drug education program presented mainly to 5th and 6th graders by uniformed police officers at school. In these anti-drug presentations the children learn about the social problems of consuming drugs, strategies to overcome those problems, and the costs of drug use. In addition, children who attend theses presentations are educated on alternatives for drug use, responsible decision making, and self-esteem issues. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program has many components to their curriculum. Some key components to their curriculum are: responsibility, decision making, drug information, risks and consequences, peer pressure, and

There are programs that are available to initiate the mindset of the young that drugs are bad. One such program is D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and has been implemented in elementary schools across the nation. The D.A.R.E. officers serve as positive role models for these young students and incorporate help from the students, parents, teachers, and community. Every aspect of the child’s life is touched in one way or another for reinforcement. One recent survey of parents documented the impact of D.A.R.E.:

Drug and alcohol use of persons under the age of 18 is prevalent (National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA], 2014). “Illicit drug use among teenagers remains high, largely due to increasing popularity of marijuana” (NIDA, 2014, pg.2). In 2013, approximately 7% of 8th graders, 18% of 10th graders, and 22% of 12th graders used marijuana in the past month. These rates have increased since the mid to late 2000’s. “6.5% of 12th graders now use marijuana every day, compared to 5% in the mid-2000’s” (NIDA, 2014, pg.2). Alcohol use has declined since the late 1900’s but in 2013, 3.5 % of 8th graders, 12.8% and 26% of 12th graders reported getting drunk in the past month (NIDA, 2014). In addition, in 2013, 16.3% of 12th graders were current cigarette smokers (NIDA, 2014). It appears that middle-school students are using drugs and alcohol; therefore, it is necessary to explore prevention for this age group (Chen, Storr & Anthony, 2008).

Being addicted to drugs is a habit that most people are not lenient with. Even though a lot of people throughout the world have the habit of taking many different types of drugs some people look at drugs as if they are unharmful or a mere leisure activity. However, the remainder consider drugs a threat to society. For example, we can walk into a bar and we see some guy consuming alcohol and is drunk out of his mind and we think, well it is just alcohol, it isn't too bad, at least he isn't taking drugs. At the same time, we can see another guy taking some cocaine and we instantly think this person is messed up, he is a drug addict, and we should keep some distance, right? Isn't the person that is drunk just as same as the guy that is