Preventive Drug Education
The preventive drug education programme targets the
following groups namely:
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Those not involved with drugs
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Those who irregularly abuse drugs
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Drug addicts.
The main target is the first group, those not
involved with drugs.
The approaches applied are:
1. The Knowledge or Attitude Approach:
The strategy used is 'disseminate information' and
'scare tactics'.
Activities included within this approach are:
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Giving lectures; the contents of the lecture
will cover aims and strategies of Narcotics Control Bureau, Misuse
of Drug Act (MDA) Chapter 27, harmful effects of abusing drugs and
other subjects pertain to drug preventive education.
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Disseminating the anti drug message through the
mass media.
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Disseminating the anti drug message using
posters and pamphlets.
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Random urine samples tests of students,
government civil servants, employees in private firms and members
of non government organizations. Number of urine samples
will be limited to 20 persons at one time. This is to reduce
the cost on the analysis.
2. Psycho-Social Approach:
The strategy involves enhancing social skills.
Social skills are deemed as necessary when facing Intrapersonal stress
and Interpersonal stress.
a. Training Skills for Individuals:
This strategy concerns mainly with various
cognitive techniques. This is to increase the concept of self
dependence, how to deal with stress, decision making skills, to
improve ones recilient and communication skills.
b. Training Skills for the Family:
This strategy assumes that teenagers are involved
in drugs due to strain of communication between the children and the
parents, lack of parenting skills or due to broken family.
c. Training Skills for Teenagers:
This strategy assumes that teenagers are involved
with drugs due to their inability to resist pressure or stress from
outside / others, for example from their peers, who are involved with
drugs. Hence, this strategy stresses on the function of the peer
group to create a healthy social development.
Family Role in
Prevention and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts:
One of the factors which attribute to drug abuse is
the instable environment within the family institutions, which eventually
affect the society. The family institutions and community play an
important role in the prevention and eradication of the misuse of drug.
The steps taken by parents in preventing their
children from experimenting drugs in the early stage is the best
measure:
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Parents should be concerned of the children's
behavior and welfare.
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The parents should become the role model to the
children.
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Guide your children from mixing with people
involved with drugs.
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Drug prevention is the best step.
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Parents should exhibit disgust of drugs, and
EDUCATE their children about the dangers of abusing drugs at younger
age.
If any member of your family is involved in drugs,
you may need to take the following measures:-
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Do not panic when you know that your family is
involved in drugs.
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The family should first calm down, the family
should be ready to accept the problem and find ways to
handle the problem.
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The family must examine in detail the cause of
the problem. Parents usually blame it on friends, school or work
place.
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The family should be concerned and must get facts
of drugs, the dangers and their affects. They must also know
the signs of drug addiction.
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The family members can consult Narcotics Control
Bureau for help and advise.
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If the child is in a Rehabilitation Centre,
parents and family members should visit as often as possible to show
concern, to support and to see them towards recovery.
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When visiting in the Rehabilitation Centre, the
family should not show on excessive and unreasonable degree of
sympathy, such as crying in front of the inmate. By
behaving in such an unjustified manner, it might reflect that they
have been badly treated by the Centre. This will help in the
rehabilitation process.
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Parents should practice discipline at the home
and also realise that an error should be corrected. They should also
discuss and explain the reasons for any disciplinary actions taken
towards their children.
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The parent should treat them as adults. Avoid
insulting and giving remarks in a degrading manner.
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The parent should know the extent of the freedom
to be given to an ex-addict depending on his behaviour and attitude.
Parents must know who their friends are and their activities.
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Show your concern towards your children while
attending the Supervision Scheme.
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Parents must realise that complete rehabilitation
takes a long process.
