ADOLESCENTS AND DRUG USE

Paper One

 EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM

"Adolescence has been viewed by psychologists as a transitional period between childhood and adulthood, a time when young people continue to develop social and intellectual skills that will prepare them for adult roles and responsibilities" (Harris, Duncan, Boisjoly 2002, p. 1).  For adolescents, this is a time of gaining autonomy, assuming responsibility and making choices about health, family, career, peers, and schooling.  However, adolescents often make choices that affect them negatively and result in long-term consequences. 

"Drug use, especially in early adolescence, interferes with normal cognitive, emotional, and social development and is closely linked with both psychiatric disorders and delinquency" (Bruner and Fishman 1998, p. 2). Mortality consequences which result of drug use among adolescents are sexually transmitted diseases, human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] infection, injury, suicide, homicide, and motor vehicle crashes.

BEHAVIORAL CHARACTERISTICS

increased heart rate

dryness of the mouth

reddening of the eyes

impaired motor skills and concentration

                                frequent hunger

                                increased desire for sweets

    COUNSELING STRATEGIES and PROCEDURES

According to Myrick (2003, p. 13), “If we wait to prevent children from catching polio, then we administer a polio vaccine.To prevent  young people from doing anything that is harmful to themselves, we must create strategies to help them recognize their behavior.” Counseling approaches are helpful when harmful behavior hasn’t happened yet, but might occur (because of external pressures).  Preventing these behaviors in children before risk is great can help the child control factors that may (in other circumstances) lead to lifelong physical, mental and social harm.                                 

“Because almost two-thirds of high school seniors have taken an illicit drug in 1998…” (Azar 1999, p. 1) young children need to be targeted using preventive programs to make sure they don’t fall in a downward spiral of using drugs when they get older. The first procedure would be to gather 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th graders of an elementary school and read to them a story on a teenage drug overdose using The Story Telling Technique.  Then by talking to the students, they will be able to disclose about their (pre)conceived notions of drugs and ideas, and their usage.  By using the Law of Parsimony we will follow thes targeted students with more intense programs. I would suggest these children have already had some introduction (in one fashion or another) to illicit drugs, and this group would benefit from counseling (not that the others wouldn’t, but for sake of space…). Creating programs using small group counseling, drug prevention services , peer facilitators, police officers, professional athletes, business successes and inmates (willing to participate and with past drug problems) would be an ideal way to talk to children.

Split each targeted group into their grades, and have 6 counseling sessions.The first session will be from inmates to present the negative side of drugs and how lives can be ruined from drugs. The inmates will be specific as to how drug use/sales ruined their lives, and how prison and incarceration affects their every waking moment. The second session will consist of police officers showing students their role in apprehending drug offenders and providing stories on what they’ve seen on the job how drugs have ruined countless youth, and by using the D.A.R.E. model, “Students who completed two or more semesters of D.A.R.E. in elementary school were 50 percent less likely to become high-risk abusers of drugs and alcohol than were students who were not exposed to D.A.R.E.”  (Santoro n.d., p. 1). Peer facilitators helping the officers during this session will be young people specifically picked in juvenile incarceration programs (former substance abusers) who have turned their lives around. The third session will use local athletes to give motivational speeches how their sport allowed them to be drug free and how not being on drugs has affected their lives.The fourth session will feature businesspersons. These adults will impress on the students how being successful and responsible adults has made their lives healthy and happy while showing actual proof that behaviors determine outcome.The fifth session (will be a weeklong session (five consecutive days of 30-45 minutes each)) utilizing drug prevention services (Mendez, DACCO, or HODAC). The final session will use the school counselors reviewing the other sessions, and during this review determine which students will need further counseling either individually, in small groups, or with family. Wyrick,Wyrick,  Bibeau, and Fearnow-Kenney’s 2001 report states the following:

Substance use prevention efforts may be optimized by correcting erroneous normative beliefs, creating a perception that substance use will interfere with a young person’s desired lifestyle, building a personal commitment to avoid substance use, and identifying both long term and short term physical and social consequences of substance use.(p. 4)

From the day a child is born, interpersonal relationships play a majority part in how that child will behave in their lifetime. Behavior shaping (whether good or bad (according to norms and mores)) always starts in the home, and some argue shaping begins in the womb. The way a child’s role models react to them has a lifelong effect on the personal choices they will be confronted with.

Using a Developmental Guidance program targeted to middle school students and a curriculum to back it up, schools will have the tools necessary to combat adolescent drug use.Using methods such as Teachers as Mentors or Advisors, peer facilitators, and the D.A.R.E. the whole school team will be actively involved in giving students the skill to make responsible choices, because it “…provides an excellent opportunity for positive interaction with children in a familiar, comfortable classroom setting” (D.A.R.E.) .Making children more effective and efficient students would be the goal of this program. When they are aware of their skills and responsible actions, getting them to understand that they are the ultimate factor in deciding whether or not they will use drugs will be the definitive dynamic of the program.

                                                                          CONCLUSION   
                                                                                                                                                      

The War on Drugs has spent hundreds of billions of dollars, and there is not much to show for it.Throughout history when something is illegal a few people will make a lot of money selling it to a lot of people.Adults still want drugs, so why wouldn’t adolescents? Preventing the populace from manufacturing, selling, and using has never worked no matter what types of punishments have been doled out or threatened. Real prevention programs, such as the ones described above, help much better than incarceration.A report from the Justice Policy institute said, "State spending of higher education decreased by 18.2%, but corrections spending increased by 30%." Former Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey said, “The principle component of our drug control strategy should be prevention programs aimed at adolescents”(p. 1), even though less than 12% of his budget was spent on reducing youth drug use.Greater prominence needs to be placed on voluntary treatment and less on incarceration since drug addiction is above all a personal and family problem. The RAND corporation found that "...domestic law enforcement efforts cost 15 times as much as treatment to achieve the same reduction in societal costs" (Rydell and Everingham 1994, p. 2).

Tried and tried methods aren’t always true. The methods used for combating drug use could be argued as not being the right ones.When civilized countries look at hard data instead of popular and political fixes, then there can be something done to help addicts.Condemning and locking up has never worked. Time to try something else.

REFERENCES

Azar, B. (1999 May) New federal guidelines on screening and treating adolescent drug use. APA Monitor Online, Vol. 30, Number 5. Retrieved  June 25, 2002 from the World Wide Web:  http://www.apa.org/monitor/may99/drug.html

Improving Substance Abuse Prevention, Assessment, and Treatment Financing for Children and Adolescents. Pediatrics.(2001, Oct.). Vol. 108, Issue 4.

Myrick, Robert D. (2003).Developmental Guidance and Counseling: A Practical Approach (4^th ed.) . Minneapolis: Educational Media Corporation.

NASBO. (1996, April).1995 State Expenditures Report .Washington, DC (As reported by the Justice Policy Institute. From Classrooms to Cellblocks: A National Perspective. (1997). Washington , DC: Justice Policy Institute.).

National Household Survey on Drug Use (1999). Retrieved  June 25, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.dare.com/D_OFFI/state.cfm?State=fl&Sort=6

NIDA. (1997) Monitoring the Future Survey.Table 12, “Long-term trends in perceived availability of drugs, twelfth graders.”

Peele,  Stanton (1986). The “Cure” for Adolescent Drug Abuse: Worse than the Problem?Journal of Counseling and Development , 65:23-24, 1986.

Quote: Drug Czar, General Barry McCaffrey Talk of the Nation. (1998, February 25); Budget Data: McCaffrey, Barry R. (1998). The National Drug Control Strategy, 1998: A Ten Year Plan. Washington, DC: Office on National Drug Control Policy, p. 58.

Retrieved  June 23, 2002 from the Internet: http://streetdrugs.org/

Retrieved  July 1, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.parentingadolescents.com

Rydell , C.P. & Everingham, S.S. (1994). Controlling Cocaine, Prepared for the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the United States Army.Santa Monica , CA:Drug PolicyResearch Center,RAND.

Wyrick , D., Wyrick, C.,  Bibeau, D., & Fearnow-Kenney, M. (2001, Nov.).Coverage of Adolescent Substance Use Prevention in State Frameworks for Health Education. Journal of School Health, Vol. 71. Issue 9, p. 437.