Drugs & Society Prevention Goldberg Ch 16

1. SOC 204 Drugs &
Society
Goldberg Chapter 16
Drug Prevention
and Education

2. Approaches to
Prevent Drug Abuse
What should be the goals of drug education and
prevention?
When should drug education and prevention
efforts be initiated?
What education and prevention efforts are
effective?
Who should be responsible for drug education
and prevention?

3. Funding Drug Prevention
In the US, most funds for drug prevention
come from the federal government
2012 National Drug Control Budget: $1.7
billion was allocated to drug prevention out of
a budget of $26.2 billion
Most community leaders favor spending a
larger portion on reducing demand rather
than supply of drugs

4. Agencies
Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration (SAMHSA) is
responsible for:
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention
(CSAP)
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism (NIAAA),
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Office of Treatment Improvement
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

5. Drug Prevention in Retrospect
1970s: Primary focus was to reduce the supply
of drugs by stopping their importation, sale, and
manufacture
Interdiction remains a popular strategy but now
is complemented by other measures
1980s: Some drug experts began to contend
that prevention should be directed toward the
underlying factors that contribute to drug abuse

6. Drug Prevention in Retrospect
Society was concerned primarily with hard
drugs such as heroin, LSD, cocaine, crack,
and PCP
Soft drugs such as alcohol, tobacco, and
marijuana are known as gateway drugs
The primary strategy of CSAP is to keep
young people from experimenting with drugs
at all

7. Effectiveness of
Prevention Programs
Problems in assessing effectiveness of
programs:
Absence of control groups
Poor data collection
Groups that are too small
Inappropriate statistics
Lack of follow-up to determine how long any
change in drug use persisted

8. School-Based Programs
Five essential criteria:
1. Adequate hours of curricula, over at least
three years
2. Peer involvement
3. Emphasis on social influences, life skills,
and peer resistance
4. Change in perceived norms
5. Involvement of parents, peers, and the
community in changing norms

9. Goals of Drug Prevention
To prevent the individual from beginning
drug use
To minimize the risks of drugs to the user
To reduce the risks of drug use to society
To prevent drug dependency
To teach responsible drug use
To stop drug use after patterns have been
established
To delay the onset of drug use

10. Levels of Drug Prevention
Primary prevention:
Strives to reach people before they start using
alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs
Should be initiated at a young age because
most children already have tried drugs,
especially alcohol, by the time they get to high
school
Includes drug education, mass media
campaigns, community-oriented programs, drug
testing, and legislation

11. Levels of Drug Prevention
Secondary prevention:
Attempts to minimize potential damage resulting
from drug use by targeting people who have
experience with drugs.
Considered an early intervention stage
Tertiary prevention:
Geared to heavy drug users and those whose
patterns of drug use are well established
Basically refers to drug treatment

12. Drug Prevention Continuum

13. Identifying High Risk Youth
High risk behaviors include:
Delinquent behavior, self-destructive behaviors,
and dropping out of school
Risk factors include:
Individual behavioral factors
Individual attitudinal factors
Individual psychosocial factors
Family factors
Community environmental factors

14. Drugs and Delinquent Behavior

15. Resilient Children
Many children from impoverished backgrounds
display resiliency despite the presence of major
life stressors
Characteristics of resilient children:
Flexible, responsive, adaptable, and active
Have positive relationships
Empathetic, caring, persistent, competent problem-solvers,
success oriented, and educationally
motivated
Able to disengage from dysfunctional family
environments

16. At-Risk Factors
Hereditary and Familial Factors:
Sons of men with alcohol problems are
more likely to have alcohol problems
Rates of dependence are greater if siblings
are dependent
Family history of antisocial behavior or
criminality increases the risk of drug
problems
Lack of supervision of children after school
is related to drug use

17. At-Risk Factors
Psychosocial Factors:
Peer pressure
Low self-esteem
Low self-efficacy
Sensation seeking
Lack of social skills
Rebelliousness against authority
Lack of commitment to school
Attraction to deviance
Unfavorable attitudes toward adult behavior

18. At-Risk Factors
Biological Factors:
Different amounts of pleasure derived from
drugs
Different amounts of self-control
Community Factors:
Communities where people move often
Extreme poverty and deprivation
Communities that lack social support and
controls regulating behaviors, including drug use

19. Preventing High-Risk
Behavior
Education:
Poor school performance and low expectations
for school are strong predictors of drug use
School alternative programs focusing on
community and recreational activities, physical
activities, and job training help youths at risk to
stay off drugs
Teachers may be role models for helping
children to develop resilience

20. Head Start
 Preschool programs
such as Head Start
help at-risk children

21. Preventing High-Risk
Behavior
Role of parents:
Parental drug use greatly increases the
likelihood of children’s drug use
Parents who have high expectations for their
children foster academic success and resilience
Community efforts:
Drug use is prevalent in impoverished, urban
neighborhoods
Jobs have been shown to help curb drug use

22. Preventing High-Risk
Behavior
Barriers to community prevention efforts:
Leaders’ lack of perceived empowerment to
continue prevention work
Insufficient preparation for adopting successful
programs
Public resistance to spending more money on
drug prevention programs after ineffective
programs
Idea that programs that are effective in one
community will not necessarily work in other
communities

23. Drug Education
Evolution in Drug Education:
1970s: Information about the dangers of drugs
Mid 1970s: Values clarification focused on the
underlying values contributing to drug use
Alternatives approach substitutes a positive
addiction for the negative addiction
More emphasis on health in general and less
emphasis on the pharmacology of drugs
Current education emphasizes developing
resilience skills, learning peer-refusal
techniques, and gaining life skills

24. Limitations of Drug Education
Problems with Drug Education:
Teachers often do not keep up with latest
information
Students sometimes know more about
drugs than teachers do
Some teachers are judgmental or moralistic
Goals of drug education are often unclear
Goals of drug education are often unrealistic

25. Goals of Drug Education
Possible goals:
To impart knowledge
Reducing drug abuse or dependency
Preventing or delaying first-time drug use
Curtailing students’ drug use
Teaching responsible drug use

26. One-Size-Fits-All Drug Education
What Works: Schools Without Drugs
Objectives
1. Valuing and maintaining sound personal health
and understanding the effects of drugs on
health
2. Respecting laws and rules that prohibit drug
use
3. Recognizing and resisting pressure to engage
in drug-taking behavior
4. Promoting activities that reinforce a positive,
drug-free lifestyle

27. Current Approaches to
Drug Education
Personal and Social Skills Training:
Young people who rate high in self-efficacy are
more likely to avoid harmful patterns of drug use
Skills training: A drug prevention program in
which one learns skills to prevent drug use
○ Includes skills for resisting media and
interpersonal influences, problem-solving and
decision-making, relieving stress and anxiety,
relaxation, self-control, self-esteem, interpersonal
relations, and assertiveness

28. Current Approaches to
Drug Education
Social Norms Approach:
Goal is to correct misperceptions of students
and reduce alcohol use
Resistance Skills Training:
Involves recognizing, managing, and
avoiding situations that may encourage drug
use

29. Current Approaches to
Drug Education
Drug Prevention Programs:
Project ALERT has been shown to reduce
weekly alcohol and marijuana use, at-risk
drinking, and alcohol use resulting in negative
consequences, as well as attitudes and
perceptions conducive to drug use
Life Skills Training (LST): students are taught
how to avoid being persuaded by others, to
manage anxiety, to communicate more
accurately, to be assertive, and to enhance their
self-esteem

30. Current Approaches to
Drug Education
Drug Abuse Resistance Education
(DARE):
Police officers go to classrooms and teach
elementary students about drugs and personal
safety
Had little impact on drug use
Just Say No!
Adequate for some students, but not for others
Some students do not recognize peer pressure
or have the skills to refuse drugs

31. DARE improves relationships between
police, children, and schools

32. Effectiveness of Drug Education
 Components of Effective Programs:
Based on an understanding of theory and research
Information is developmentally appropriate; short-term,
negative social consequences are emphasized
Emphasize social resistance skills training
Includes normative education
Teachers use interactive teaching techniques
Teachers receive training and support
Time devoted is sufficient and continued
Programs are culturally sensitive.
School programs include family, community, and
media
Evaluation is necessary to determine effectiveness

33. Health Education
Drug education at the secondary level typically is
taught in health education classes
Sequential health education from K through 12th
grade had a positive effect on knowledge,
attitudes, and behaviors
Administrative support and teacher training are
important to the success of health education

34. Peer Programs
In some, older students teach younger students about
drugs
In other programs, peers facilitate discussions about
drugs with others of the same age, or peers counsel
peers
Besides acting as role models, peer leaders have to be
able to communicate effectively
Peer programs were most effective with the average
student; for at-risk students, alternative programs were
most effective