PREVENTION

 

EDUCATION should focus on health and self esteem in order to prevent recruitment into the drug scene.     Education needs to provide strategies to resist peer pressure.

 

The basic premise is that THE BODY AND MIND ARE NOT INDESTRUCTIBLE and that DRUGS ARE DAMAGING AND ADDICTIVE. AND CANNOT BE USED SAFELY.

 

The whole community needs to be aware of the consequences of using mind-altering substances, e.g. the sniffing of solvents and petrol; marijuana; amphetamines, ecstasy; opiates, etc.  all have many undesirable and lasting effects.     The sociological, emotional and physical consequences of drug abuse must be clearly conveyed to the whole community with the emphasis that it is not possible to use mind altering substances  ‘safely’, nor is it possible to be maintained on drugs and to function ‘normally’ and therefore certainly not perform optimally.  

 

The philosophy advocating  ‘harm minimization’ must be exposed as unsubstantiated, because addiction is progressive and debilitating.   People using illicit drugs lose motivation, and are focused only on obtaining the next cocktail of drugs, and thus become progressively addicted.   (Poly drug use is widespread, as users of drugs seek to enhance the mind-altering effects, as addiction progresses.)

 

The community must be educated regarding the fallacy of success and dangers of drug maintenance proposals to provide ‘heroin trials ‘, heroin injecting rooms, needle ‘exchanges’, methadone maintenance programs and the decriminalization of marijuana.   The public have been gravely misled by the proponents of these illogical and devastating proposals, which are presented under   the guise of so-called compassion to the drug –user.   These programs have been presented as a means of protecting the public from crime, infection, needle litter and public nuisance, but in reality, the afore- mentioned programs facilitate addiction and expand the number of drug users.

 

 HOPE should be a key ingredient in any education program, as people are encouraged to seek treatment and to know that it is possible to recover from drug addiction, rather than to be condemned to lifelong drug use by means of harm minimization policies which inevitably, will lead to continued addiction, infection, social alienation, prostitution, crime and death. 

 

SCHOOLS must play a vital role in protecting the community by giving honest information to children and young people regarding the dangers of drug use in a manner that will deter experimentation.

 

IN THE EARLY PRIMARY SCHOOL YEARS, the approach should be that of caring for one’s own body and mind by adopting a healthy lifestyle, free of unhealthy substances.   Inculcated from an early age, the child should be made aware of the risk of damage to  his/her body by inappropriate and unhealthy behavior.   We must ‘drug proof’ our children at an early age, in order to protect them from induction into a drug taking lifestyle by older children who have already been influenced to take drugs.

 

OLDER CHILDREN need anti-peer-pressure education in order to train them to resist peer pressure as it arises.   The anti-drug message needs to be re-enforced throughout the late primary and secondary school years.   An integrated approach, spread across the curriculum, involving many class hours annually, which consistently   gives an antidrug message to students, will reap rewards, in terms of social cost by saving young lives from drug damage.

 

Plain clothed  ‘party police’ in attendance at all young people’s social events, would not only monitor drug dealing, but act as a deterrent in the uptake of drugs.   Trusted members of the community could provide valuable assistance to the police force in this manner. by being alert to problems, but also in educating young people in health and well-being by providing drug-free role models and mentors for young people.   Mandatory reporting of drug  ‘activity ‘ by school teachers and the medical profession would lead to early assessment and appropriate intervention before  ‘heavy’ drug use is established.  Religious institutions and Community leisure and sporting clubs’ officials should be recruited to help protect young people at a vulnerable stage of life from being drawn into the drug scene. .

 

Limitation of the available supply of drugs is a key factor in preventing the uptake of drugs.   There must be a co-ordinated and concerted effort on the part of federal, state, local council and community to provide surveillance of drug supply and dealing at both macro and micro level.  Funding must be sufficient to supply adequate numbers of Customs and Ports Inspectors to be trained and equipped with ‘sniffer’ dogs and the latest technology to detect the entry of drugs into the country.   At a local level sufficient police must be provided at all levels to enable the detection of the covert manufacturing and distribution of illicit drugs.   Concerned citizens should report crops of marijuana.   It is necessary for all members of the community to become aware of drug activity, and to feel free, and without the danger of repercussion  (by means of adequate police protection) to report such drug activity to the police, Young people should be encouraged to report the drug use of friends and siblings to parents and the police, in order that early intervention will take place. 

 

Anti-drug  ‘advertisements’ using all forms of media should be frequent and widespread, in order to reach every member of the community, both young and old.   An abstinence message must be promoted, in order to avoid permissive, drug tolerant messages misleading the community again.  

 

Prevention of drug abuse must be facilitated by an all-party, apolitical approach, so that a united, well-coordinated approach can be sustained throughout the country.   Laws to deter drug use, with heavy penalties for dealers and traffickers of drugs.   Mandatory drug treatment for all drug users is an essential component of a policy aiming to diminish the drug using population, by restoring the individual to a drug free lifestyle; it   would also limit the drug user’s inevitable activity of recruiting others into drug dependence, in order to support his/her drug habit.

 

Prevention is possible if there is a willingness to learn from our mistakes, to adopt abstinence based policies in order to become a drug free society, which is truly compassionate and caring for all citizens.

Isobel Gawler