Pubdate: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 Source: Cayman Net News (Cayman Islands) Copyright: 2008 Cayman Net Ltd Contact: http://www.caymannetnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3700 Author: George Roper PREVENT DRUG ABUSE AMONG YOUTH Dear Sir, Drugs are now cheaper and more readily available today than they were a decade ago. The Cayman Islands addiction rates are at an unprecedented high; the judicial system is clogged with drug-related cases. Adolescents consider alcohol and other drugs less harmful today than they did a few years ago. For many the use of drugs, even the sale of drugs, constitutes an attractive path to what they perceive as entrance to adulthood. Society has been searching desperately for a way to reach out to this group of high-risk individuals. Meanwhile, serious research efforts aimed at prevention have gone through several years of insight, without any real progress. Community-wide preventive initiatives have made very little headway in diminishing the use of "gateway" substances (tobacco, alcohol and marijuana) in early adolescence. Several preventive programmes for young adolescents have proven to reduce drug use. The teaching of life skills is a very effective tool in the prevention of cigarette smoking, and alcohol and marijuana use if applied with sufficient intensity and duration. The systematic teachings and application of these skills can contribute to personal competence and provide constructive alternatives to health-damaging behaviour, as well as giving those at risk a means to support them. I suggest it would be a good idea to intensify and focus the sessions in our high schools enabling hands-on experience. In doing so, the preventive efforts of early interventions need to be sustained through the senior year. The prevention of cigarette smoking is vitally important, both because of its "gateway" function and the numerous health risks throughout life that flow from this addiction in early adolescence. Beyond the targeted approach to substance abuse, parents, teachers, and society should understand that adolescent immersion in high-risk behaviour is magnified by developmental problems such as low self-esteem, poor performance in school, depression, or inability to make deliberate, informed decisions. Our youth use drugs for different reasons; for some, using drugs may be a way of feeling mature and sophisticated, others quickly follow suit because all their peers are doing it, and they don't want to feel left out or looked at differently. In the most recent Cayman Islands Student Drugs Use Survey, done by the National Drug Council in 2006, of the 2,945 enrolled students, 2,480 completed questionnaires. The statistics show that alcohol remains the most common drug used by adolescents in the Cayman Islands, with 68.8% of all students surveyed reporting lifetime use. Let us not forget alcohol is the number one cause of death among the youth population as a result of road fatalities. The NDC survey also reported that 22.3% of all students smoke six or more cigarettes per day. In 2006, 5.8% of all students in grades 7 to 12 reported using ganja at least once during the month before the survey, and 4.3% used ganja six or more times in the past year. Generally speaking, the survey shows that ganja use by Cayman Islands students is lower than that of students in North America. However, with this being said, it is not acceptable to compare ourselves to others and ignore the growing drug problem in our schools. To take a view that we are not as bad as others is not the right way to go. Must we wait for a crisis to act? No! We need to work hard to reduce the statistics. We as a nation need to step up and be an international leader in the fight against drug abuse amongst our youth. My suggestion is, since we are spending $50 million a year fighting crime, perhaps it would be a great idea to budget a few dollars preventing it from happening. George Roper - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin