Task 1 Starter activity
List reasons why you think people take drugs
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People take drugs because they want to change something
about their lives.
Here are some of the reasons young people have given for taking
drugs:
To fit in
To escape or relax
To relieve boredom
To seem grown up
To rebel
To experiment
They think drugs are a solution. But eventually, the drugs become
the problem.
Difficult as it may be to face one’s problems, the consequences of
drug use are always worse than the problem one is trying to solve
with them. The real answer is to get the facts and not to take drugs
in the first place.
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Someone who is sad might use drugs to
get a feeling of happiness, but it does
not work. Drugs can lift a person into a
fake kind of cheerfulness, but when the
drug wears off, he or she crashes even
lower than before. And each time, the
emotional plunge is lower and lower.
Eventually, drugs will completely destroy
all the creativity a person has.
http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/drugs/basic-facts-aboutcommonly-abused-drugs.html
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Drug misuse can be dangerous for three main reasons:
you could become addicted to the drug,
the drug could cause physical and psychological harm, and
drug abuse can have a negative effect on your quality of life.
Addiction
How addictive a drug is likely to be is determined by two things:
how pleasurable taking the drug is, and how quickly the drug reaches your brain.
Drugs that are smoked, injected or snorted can reach the brain very quickly and are
usually more addictive than drugs that are swallowed.
In 2007, the medical journal The Lancet commissioned a number of drug experts to
asses how potentially addictive the most popular illegal drugs are. The results, in order of
addictiveness with the most addictive at the top, were:
Heroin.
Cocaine.
Tranquillisers.
Amphetamines.
Ketamine.
Cannabis.
Hallucinogens.
Ecstasy.
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As well as the impact on your health, drug misuse can have a negative
effect on your quality of life and relationships with others.
Many drug abusers find that they lose touch with their family and friends
or that their family and friends lose patience with them due to their
unreasonable behaviour.
Hobbies, interests and ambitions can be forgotten as drugs become
more and more important. It can become increasingly difficult to hold
down a job if you have a drug problem.
People with a serious drug addiction, such as a heroin, cocaine or crack
addiction, often resort to desperate, illegal and dangerous activities to
find money to pay for their drugs. Examples include:
begging,
burglary,
shop-lifting,
street crime, such as mugging or bag snatching, and
prostitution.
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Health care education has a
particular role in destigmatising
substance misusers.
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The costs of substance misuse
to the NHS are enormous, so it
makes economic as well as
clinical sense to invest in
greater emphasis on
addressing the issue, during
both undergraduate and
postgraduate training. Until this
happens, health services will
help to perpetuate stigma
rather than take the lead in
reducing it.
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Drugs Awareness Campaign
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http://www.patient.co.uk/s
howdoc/16#alc
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From analysing over 20 years of work and research in the field of Drug
Education, the following principles and components are recommended for
effectiveness:
Programmes should:
Enhance protective factors and reverse or reduce risk factors. [Protective
factors are those associated with reduced potential for drug use. Risk factors
are those that make the potential for drug use more likely.]
Address all forms of drug abuse, alone or in combination, including the
underage use of legal drugs (e.g., tobacco or alcohol); the use of illegal
drugs; and the inappropriate use of legally obtained substances (e.g.,
inhalants), prescription medications, or over-the-counter drugs.
Include a strong family-based component (in addition to the school-based
component) to enhance family bonding and relationships and include
parenting skills; practice in developing, discussing, and enforcing family
policies on substance abuse; and training in drug education and information.
Start early in a child’s life (at pre-school) to address health issues and risk
factors for drug use and be long-term and ongoing through children’s school
years.
Have a targeted programme for key transition times such as transition to
secondary school.
Involve schools, having Head Teachers and teachers committed to
programmes and providing follow-up work and reinforcement of programme
objectives.
Involve the entire community.
Involve press/media to support drug education aims (through campaigns,
advertisements, etc).
Use interactive teaching techniques for active involvement in learning, such
as discussion, decision making and role play.
Include general life skills training and training in skills to resist drugs when
offered, strengthen personal attitudes and commitments against drug use,
and increase social competency (e.g., in communications, peer
relationships, self-efficacy, and assertiveness).
Be age-specific, developmentally appropriate, and culturally sensitive.
http://www.lifeeducation.org.uk/newsletter/newsindex.php?action=publi
carticle&id=392
http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/16#alc
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Families have a significant role to play in reducing the impact of drugs and alcohol on
young people, not only in conveying vital information to them, but in promoting the
factors that protect young people from the risks of drug and alcohol misuse (Advisory
Council on the Misuse of Drugs [ACMD], 2006; Velleman et al, 2000).
Programmes involving families in drug and alcohol education work should:
Develop programmes which promote protective factors that help to reduce the risk of
young people becoming involved in drug and alcohol misuse.
Be adequately resourced to develop quality programmes, enabling them to focus on
the complex process of involving vulnerable and diverse families in projects.
Focus on the needs and experiences of young people, particularly those vulnerable to
harm caused by drugs and alcohol, by developing participative and creative
programmes of interest to them.
Find positive, empowering approaches to parenting, resilience work and drug and
alcohol education, to encourage the most vulnerable and challenged families to
engage and stay in programmes.
Programmes can effectively engage the most vulnerable of adults and young people.
However, these programmes need to be planned and developed according to
diverse needs and interests.
To be effective, programmes should explore issues relating to parenting, drugs and
alcohol and family diversity, employing innovative methods to fully engage, involve
and empower the most vulnerable and diverse of families.
Bouncing Back!, Adfam UK, February 2007.
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According to several studies, drug treatment
reduces drug use by 40 to 60 percent and
significantly decreases criminal activity
during and after treatment. For example, a
study of therapeutic community treatment for
drug offenders demonstrated that arrests for
violent and nonviolent criminal acts were
reduced by 40 percent or more. Methadone
treatment has been shown to decrease
criminal behavior by as much as 50 percent.
Research shows that drug addiction treatment
reduces the risk of HIV infection and that
interventions to prevent HIV are much less
costly than treating HIV-related illnesses.
Treatment can improve the prospects for
employment, with gains of up to 40 percent
after treatment.
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Although these effectiveness rates hold in
general, individual treatment outcomes
depend on the extent and nature of the
patient's presenting problems, the
appropriateness of the treatment components
and related services used to address those
problems, and the degree of active
engagement of the patient in the treatment
process.
Agonist Maintenance Treatment for opiate addicts
usually is conducted in outpatient settings, often
called methadone treatment programs. These
programs use a long-acting synthetic opiate
medication, usually methadone or LAAM,
administered orally for a sustained period at a
dosage sufficient to prevent opiate withdrawal,
block the effects of illicit opiate use, and
decrease opiate craving. Patients stabilized on
adequate, sustained dosages of methadone or
LAAM can function normally. They can hold jobs,
avoid the crime and violence of the street culture,
and reduce their exposure to HIV by stopping or
decreasing injection drug use and drug-related
high-risk sexual behavior.
Patients stabilized on opiate agonists can engage
more readily in counseling and other behavioral
interventions essential to recovery and
rehabilitation. The best, most effective opiate
agonist maintenance programs include individual
and/or group counseling, as well as provision of,
or referral to, other needed medical,
psychological, and social services.
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(http://www.talktofrank.com/) supports the Drug Strategy's
objective of preventing young people from becoming problem
drug users, by aiming to provide credible and accurate drugs
information to young people, parents and carers through a
variety of different media (including by phone, online and by
paper materials).
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It also aims to support stakeholders across the country by
supporting local activities and providing information. It was
launched in May 2003 achieving widespread media coverage.
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Adverts on the television and radio, posters and other campaign
materials were used to raise awareness of the resource and to
reach as many people as possible. In its first year, 1.5 million
people logged onto FRANK's website, and over 400,000 calls
were received to its helpline. Parents and young people are
accessing FRANK, and 73% of stakeholders believe that the
service does not need improvement.
What should you do as a medical professional?
Why do you think this 26 year old has become drug dependent?
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His father had a lot of influence over him as a child.
He was allowed to smoke cannabis from the age of 13 years.
His family is middle class and have plenty of money coming in.
His parents divorced when he was 5 years old, he stays with
each one when he has fallen out with the other parent.
His mother has changed his bedroom at her home into an office.
She does cook and wash his clothes on occasions. His father
generous with money and allow his son to sleep over with friends
whenever he likes.
His father never checked to see where he was staying.
At the age of 12 years his father moved to London, leaving him
in Yorkshire.
He has some really close friends that look out for him, and let him
stay at their homes.
What do you think about the nurturing and environmental
factors?