Drug Education Programs Research Articles

Making choices

Drug and Alcohol ReviewVolume 17, Issue 2 p. 149-152 Free Access Making choices John B. Saunders, John B. Saunders Editor Department of Psychiatry, University of Queensland, Brisbane, AustraliaSearch for more papers by this author John B. Saunders, John B. Saunders Editor Department of Psychiatry, University of Queensland, Brisbane, AustraliaSearch for more papers by this author First published: 29 May 2009 https://doi.org/10.1080/09595239800186941AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL References 1 Edwards G., Anderson P., Babor TF et al. Alcohol policy and the public good. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. 2 Saxena S. Alcohol, Europe and the developing countries, Addiction 1997; 92(Suppl.): 43– 8. 3 United Nations International Drug Control Programme. World Drug Report. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 4 World Health Organization. Amphetamine-type stimulants. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1997. 5 Single E., Rohl T. The National Drug Strategy: mapping the future. Canberra: Department of Health and Family Services, 1997. 6 Smart RG, Mann RE. Are increases in treatment levels and Alcoholics Anonymous membership large enough to reduce liver cirrhosis rates Br J Addict 1990; 85: 1291– 8. 7 Project MATCH Research Group, Matching alcoholism treatments to client heterogeneity: Project MATCH posttreatment drinking outcomes. J Stud Alcohol 1997; 58: 7– 29. 8 Bien TH, Miller WR, Tonigan JS. Brief interventions for alcohol problems: a review. Addiction 1993; 88: 315– 36. 9 Fagerstrom K-O. Measuring degree of physical dependency to tobacco smoking with reference to individualization of treatment. Addict Behav 1978; 3: 235– 41. 10 Saunders JB, Aasland OG, Babor TF, da la Fuente JR, Grant M. Development of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): WHO collaborative project on early detection of persons with harmful alcohol consumption—II. Addiction 1993; 88: 791– 803. 11 WHO Brief Intervention Study Group. A cross-national trial of brief interventions with heavy drinkers. Am J Pub Health 1996; 86: 948– 55. 12 Holmila M. Experiences of Lahti project. Paper presented at the Kettil Bruun Society Symposium on Community Action Research, Chianti, Italy, September 1995. 13 Hawthorne G., Garrard J., Dunt D. Does Life Education's drug education programme have a public benefit Addiction 1995; 90: 205– 15. 14 Homel R. Random breath testing in Australia: a complex deterrent. Aust Drug Alc Rev 1988; 7: 231– 41. Volume17, Issue2June 1998Pages 149-152 ReferencesRelatedInformation

PERCEPTUAL MAPPING OF BANNED SUBSTANCES IN ATHLETICS

A multidimensional scaling approach was used to investigate the differential positions of 16 banned substances relative to selected attributes as perceived by student athletes. Four factors dictating respondents' preference were extracted using a factor analysis. Differences in perceptions as defined by gender and contact versus noncontact sports were compared to identify those banned substances to which student athletes were most vulnerable. Besides alcohol, caffeine, and anabolic steroids, the results revealed that marijuana, crank / speed, heroin, and LSD / ecstasy were popular among male student-athletes, and uppers / amphetamines, and morphine among female student-athletes. Marijuana, cocaine / crack, and heroin were given a special preference in contact sports, whereas marijuana and crank / speed were preferred in noncontact sports. The results could help the development of targeted drug policies and education programs to curb the potential use of banned substances in athletics.

Current perspectives on anabolic steroids

Steroids are used outside the realm of competitive athletics in Australia among a wide variety of groups with different motivations and goals. This paper provides an overview of the reasons for use; rates of usage; physical and psychological side effects; and sources of steroids. Issues associated with injecting steroids; their current legal status; and drug education and prevention programmes are reviewed briefly. Research involving identified sub-populations is needed to determine user profiles and prevalence rates of users and potential users. Studies of Australian users are also needed to obtain baseline information on areas of potential harm associated with steroids use, e.g. aggressive behaviour, needle-sharing behaviour, physical side effects and potential for dependency. It is concluded that future deterrence strategies should focus more on demand reduction, rather than supply.

An Alcohol and Drug Education Program for Nurses

Alcohol and drug use and abuse present serious problems for health care professionals, both as clinicians and abusers. These topics, however, have not been addressed adequately in nursing curricula. Nurses need to know the effects that alcohol and drug use and abuse have on individuals, families, and society. In this article, the authors outline the framework for a course or presentation that reviews the problems and applies the nursing process to the issues. The course can be adapted to meet the needs of nurses in any discipline, including the perioperative area, as well as for other health care providers and community groups. Course content and teaching strategies are included.

The impact of drug education and prevention programs. Disparity between impressionistic and empirical assessments.

In the course of evaluating drug prevention programs for youth, we observed that although staff perceived the programs had quite favorably affected youths' attitudes and behavior, responses from these youths showed little significant impact on their use or attitudes related to drugs. This article explores several explanations for the disparity between staff impressions of the impact of these programs and results from attempts to measure impact objectivity. The analysis considers (a) clients' risk-level for drug use, (b) expectations as to how programs affect client behavior and attitudes, and (c) the sensitivity of empirical measures to ascertain changes reflecting impact of the program.

Prison visits to meet drug addicts: a Dutch drug education scheme

Describes the author’s visit to The Netherlands while in receipt of a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to study drug education. Reports on a visit of a group of 12‐year‐old schoolchildren to a remand prison in Amsterdam, where they met a heroin addict. This scheme is run by the Amsterdam police authorities as part of their drug education programme. Concludes that, although the scheme is unusual, it could make a valuable contribution to a health education programme.

Drugs and the college athlete: an analysis of the attitudes of student athletes at risk.

Theories related to planned behavior and reasoned action have included an individual's attitude as an important factor in the formation of behavioral intentions and behaviors. Research on this topic suggests that salient beliefs affect intentions and subsequent behaviors, either through attitudes or subjective norms, or the degree of (perceived) control that an individual feels he/she has over the behavior. This study was designed to examine the relative importance of selected attitude variables in describing a profile of athletes who were at risk for using anabolic steroids, human grown hormone, amphetamines, cocaine, and marijuana. Responses from 563 student athletes at two Division One NCAA universities were used in the study. The results of this study suggest that subjective norms, based on the influence of drug testing, peer influence, and a fear of detection are significant factors that influence the decisions of student athletes related to using banned substances. In this article characteristics of at-risk athletes are presented with recommendations for drug education programs for student athletes.

The prevalence and frequency of drug use among western australian metropolitan high school students

Data pertaining to prevalence and frequency of drug use were obtained from 1,394 Western Australian metropolitan high school students using a self-report questionnaire. Alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, hallucinogens, and amphetamines were reported as the most prevalent substances, with over 50% of “current drug users” using alcohol and marijuana on a frequent basis (i.e., weekly to more than once per day). Significant interactions existed between Gender and prevalence of tobacco and hallucinogens; and School Year Level and prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, hallucinogens and amphetamines. In terms of the frequency of use significant interactions were found between Gender and marijuana: and between School Year Level and tobacco. Approximately 40% of substance-using participants used one single substance, 40% used two or three substances, and 20% used four or more substances. The results suggest there is a need for educators to have a greater understanding of the patterns of substance use in order for them to more aptly shape drug education programs.

Preteenage drug use in Australia: The key predictors and school-based drug education

The promise that early intervention school-based drug education is it will have public health benefits. This argument was explored through identifying the key predictors of early adolescent social drug use. A cross-sectional survey involving 3,019 6th year students, aged 11-12 years (participation rate: 99%), enrolled in 86 Melbourne primary schools was carried out to determine students' social drug use. In addition data were collected on known key social, personal, and education predictors. Logistic regression was used to identify significant predictors of drug experimentation and use. The key predictors of girls' tobacco use were friends' smoking (OR: 6.7), low literacy (OR: 4.4), and alcohol use (OR: 3.9). For boys they were friends' smoking (OR: 8.6), low literacy (OR: 4.2), and alcohol use (OR: 3.1). For alcohol use, the key predictors for girls were smoking (OR: 4.2), parents' drinking (OR: 3.9), and friends' drinking (OR: 3.8). For boys they were friends' drinking (OR: 3.3), smoking (O: 2.8), and poor literacy (OR: 2.6). Regarding analgesic use, for girls the key predictors were alcohol use (OR: 3.3), analgesic self-administration (OR: 2.4), and parents' drinking or working as tradespersons/laborers (OR: 1.7, respectively). For boys they were analgesic self-administration (OR: 2.5), drinking (OR: 1.9), smoking (OR: 1.7). The key predictors of social drug use--which suggests multiple recruitment pathways--were all outside the ambit of drug education programs. The impact of education on recruitment to drug use or experimentation among the young is therefore likely to be slight.

Students and Substances: Social Power in Drug Education

A statewide evaluation of a school-based substance use and drug education program called California Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco Education (DATE) was conducted from 1991 to 1994 for the State Department of Education. Researchers used multiple methods to evaluate DATE programs such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) and Red Ribbon Weeks. Analysis of 143 field interviews with educators and administrators, and 40 student focus groups (grades 5–12) revealed that educators attempted to prevent student substance use by providing a “no-substance-use” message through high fear appeal; offering rewards; and attempting to improve students’ self-esteem by teaching refusal skills. Student interviews indicate program dissatisfaction and service-related cognitive dissonance. Random survey results (5,045 students in grades 7–12) showed that over 40% of California’s students were “not at all” influenced by educators or drug education programs, 15% were influenced “a lot” or “completely,” and nearly 70% described a neutral to negative affect toward educators. Regression analyses showed that survey responses did not depend on self-reported substance use, nor the number of drug programs received (among other factors). This large-scale, multi-modal evidence suggests that drug, alcohol, and tobacco education programs had no positive influence on a majority of students’ substance-use decisions, and had other effects counter to those intended. This was especially true during the period when youth are faced with substance-use decisions, grades 7–12. Given the similarity of many U.S. drug education programs, student rejection of DATE programs is significant. Results and the need for a conceptual shift in how students are viewed and educated about substances are discussed.

COMMUNITY READINESS AND PREVENTION PROGRAMS

Community norms and values are important factors affecting the support of community-based development efforts. This is particularly the case when the programs are prevention efforts, including drug education programs. The purpose of this article is to describe a way to measure the readiness of a community to support drug prevention education. The readiness scale was based on the classic community development models of the social action process (Beal, 1964) and the innovation decision-making process (Rogers, 1994). Development of the scale was based on construction of 45 anchor rating statements for five dimensions of a prevention program and nine stages of community readiness. The community readiness scale was designed for use by community development practitioners working in the field of prevention, through key informants interviews with selected community leaders. Results from 45 communities indicated a bi-modal distribution of readiness levels. Implications of the results and experiences in developing and measuring community readiness are discussed in terms of community-based strategies and the potential to apply the concept of readiness to other areas of community development.

An Evaluation of a Primary Prevention Programme for Schools

A drug education programme, developed in the USA, for primary aged children was evaluated. Pupils attending an inner-London junior school were randomly assigned to receive Project Charlie (n = 65) or to the control group (n = 55). After one year of weekly 30 minute lessons, the children who had received Project Charlie had a greater knowledge of the effects of medicinal, social and illicit drugs. They could generate both more and higher quality solutions to hypothetical social dilemmas and were more secure in their ability to resist peer pressure to commit anti-social acts. However, Project Charlie children did not have significantly higher self-esteem than the control children, nor did the two groups differ in their intentions to use drugs, or their reported current use.

Deciding to Risk It: Toward a Multivariate Model of Unsafe Injecting Behavior

This paper reports on a set of studies which sought to explain why Australian injecting drug users (IDUs) continue to share injecting equipment despite the provision of needles and syringes, drug treatment, education programs, and HIV testing. A range of situational and psychological factors were implicated in risk-taking, and these are integrated into a theoretical model which reflects the decision-making processes that occur when IDUS decide to take a risk.

Drug Education: Supporting Parents to Support Children

Such research evidence as exists on effective drug strategies in prevention and education draws attention to the importance of involving parents along with other community agencies and school governors. Much depends nevertheless on the way in which ‘involvement’ is interpreted and the assumptions that are made about parents’ knowledge of drugs and drug education as well as their attitudes to drug issues. As the age of initial experimentation and contact with drugs continues to fall, the importance of enskilling parents to support drug education programmes for 5 year olds and upwards continues to rise. This paper reports the first wide ranging survey of parents’ knowledge of drugs and drug issues across an entire English county embracing younger as well as older children. The need for more coordinated, informed and systematic guidance to parents is established.

MDMA (Ecstacy): useful information for health professionals involved in drug education programs.

3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; "Ecstacy") is an amphetamine derivative that is related chemically to both amphetamines and hallucinogens. Despite reports of an increase in MDMA usage among adolescents and young adults in the past decade, systematic scientific information concerning MDMA and its effects remains insufficient, thus limiting or eliminating MDMA from inclusion in the drug education curriculum.

Drug Lessons and Education Programs in Developing Countries

Drug Lessons and Education Programs in Developing Countries

Drug Lessons and Education Programs in Developing Countries.

Drug Lessons and Education Programs in Developing Countries.

Drug and alcohol use by Canadian university athletes: a national survey.

To gauge the extent of drug and alcohol use in Canadian university athletes, we estimated the proportion of Canadian university athletes using social and/or ergogenic drugs through survey methods. A secondary purpose was to examine athletes' perceptions of the value of drug testing and drug education programs. Using a stratified random sampling procedure, 754 student athletes were surveyed in eight different sports from eight universities across Canada. Results showed that 17.7 percent of athletes have used major pain medications over the past twelve months, 3 percent reported use of weight loss products, 0.9 percent reported anabolic steroid use, 16.6 percent reported use of smokeless tobacco products, 94.1 percent reported use of alcohol, 65.2 percent reported use of caffeine products, 0.7 percent reported use of amphetamines, 1.0 percent reported use of barbiturates, 19.8 percent reported use of marijuana or hashish, 5.9 percent reported use of psychedelics and 0.8 percent reported use of cocaine/crack.

Paracetamol use, availability, and knowledge of toxicity among British and American adolescents.

Paracetamol is the commonest agent employed in self poisoning, however it is not clear whether adolescents possess insight into the serious complications associated with its misuse. Using a one page questionnaire, the availability, usage, and knowledge of toxicity of paracetamol among 1147 American and British adolescents was assessed. Although 90% of all students recognised that paracetamol could kill, the great majority of students overestimated the lethal dose. In addition, while knowledge regarding side effects of paracetamol was poor the drug was widely available to, and used by, the study population. It is proposed that gross overestimation of the number of tablets required to kill, poor understanding of paracetamol side effects, and wide availability of the drug contribute to its frequent use in adolescent suicidal behaviour. The inclusion of some over-the-counter medications in school drug education programs in addition to tighter control of the availability of paracetamol may help reduce the problem of adolescent self poisoning.

The social impact of Life Education: estimating drug use prevalence among Victorian primary school students and the statewide effect of the Life Education programme.

Evaluations of drug education programmes focus on the effect on participating students. Although this is appropriate, where programmes are institutionalized the wider population impact should also be considered. This paper examines this argument and provides a practical methodology for examining programme impacts on populations. It illustrates this using the example of the Life Education (LE) programme-a mature early intervention programme operating internationally-on the Victorian (Australia) population of Year 6 schoolchildren. Data from a recent evaluation of Life Education in Victoria, Australia, were re-analysed enabling estimation of adjusted attributable risk percentage (which provide an estimate of programme effect among those who are exposed to it), population prevalence estimates and population attributable risk percentage (which provide estimates of programme impacts on the entire population). In 1992 when the data were collected LE operated in 43% of all Victorian primary schools. The findings showed that within LE-schools 43% of girls' and 35% of boys' recent smoking was attributable to participation in the LE-programme. For drinking within LE-schools, while there was no apparent effect on girls, the programme was associated with 40% of boys' recent drinking. When the data were extrapolated to the state-wide smoking and drinking estimates, these showed that of all smoking among Year 6 schoolchildren, 25% of girls' and 19% of boys' smoking could be attributed to participation in Life Education, as could 22% of all boys' recent drinking. This re-analysis showed there was no preventive effect associated with the programme, at either the school or the population level. The findings suggest that intervention programmes should be thoroughly evaluated prior to widespread implementation, and that such evaluations should include reference to the community-wide impacts of such programmes.