Drugs and education
The school is an essential space for the growth of young people, but it can also be a place to start the consumption of drugs. In fact, among the factors that may lead to trying different drugs are poor peer influence, peer pressure or curiosity. For this reason, the school has a prevention and information function on the risks of drugs in order to raise awareness and raise awareness among young people about them. Schools are a good place to disseminate effective information and prevention strategies on drugs prevention.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recognize that the use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs usually begins in adolescence, which negatively affects the physical and mental health of young people, as well as the long-term well-being of young people. It has also been shown to have negative consequences related to education, such as low participation in the classroom, low academic achievement and school failure. Therefore, in order to prevent the consumption of drugs, different educational actions must be organized to avoid the consequences mentioned.
First, education for the prevention of drug use in educational centers, as the cross-sectional axis of the academic curriculum. Primary education should begin to explain to students the serious consequences of drug use and to promote a healthy lifestyle. To this end, children need to be made aware of the short- and long-term consequences of drug use. With particular emphasis on tobacco, alcohol and cannabis, toxic substances used by children to start drug use. But it is also essential that they know that drug addiction is a disease and that, therefore, their treatment requires specialized support.
"The participation and collaboration of families, schools and public institutions is essential to ensure effective drug prevention programmes"
Secondly, to develop alternatives to explain the drug issue through out-of-school provision. After-school programs should train for the development of their own abilities, help parents to better inform themselves, advise, identify behavioral problems, enable early intervention and have a valuation and intervention function that allows direct orientation of students towards health professionals. The effectiveness of these programmes depends on the involvement of public institutions.
On the other hand, although education has always been considered as a protective factor, if the message does not function correctly, it can become a risk factor, increasing curiosity or reinforcing beliefs or myths that promote consumption or underestimate the consequences of the consumption of these substances. Unesco, in its report The Responses of the Education Sector to the Consumption of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs, points out that prevention strategies should be oriented to extol strategies that positively affect adolescents, not only to transmit information. To do this, it must be emphasized that drug consumption is a consequence of a decision and personal responsibility, and that individuals who do not want to consume make the decision to face social pressures, after the use of personal critical thoughts and skills.
In short, the participation and collaboration of families, schools and public institutions is essential to ensure effective drug prevention programs. The key, therefore, is prevention and education, but we need to go further and go much further. It is not enough to conduct advertising campaigns in schools full of simple topics, or to develop simple workshops of school hours. Drug consumption prevention should be the cross-cutting axis of the educational curriculum and should guide students towards critical thinking and healthy decision-making.
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