DRUG AND ALCOHOL USE

Drug and Alcohol Use

Drug and Alcohol Use

In general, prevention programs aimed at strengthening protective factors and reducing risk factors to reduce the likelihood of delinquency or drug use. Research has shown that the multiple risk factors are suppose to increase the likelihood of continued use of drugs especially at an age when the prevalence of drug-related crimes is highest in individuals who start drinking at an early age. The risk factors identified by scientific research are: attendance of peers influencing negative, erroneous beliefs about the prevalence of illicit drug use, parenting practices inconsistent or abuse, school exclusion and low self-esteem. Studies have also demonstrated that the same risk factors and protection often act on other behaviors such as violence, delinquency, school dropout, risky sexual behaviors and teenage pregnancy (Ellickson and Bell, 2008).

Responding to these risky behaviors before they become problems is not an easy task. Taken alone, the presence of risk factors does not predict the use and abuse of drugs. Studies on several risk factors have demonstrated that they have a cumulative effect. The more a young person is exposed to several risk factors; the more likely he or she adopts violent or delinquent behaviors. According to longitudinal studies, children aged 10 years exposed to 6 or more risk factors are ten times more likely to be violent at age 18 years compared to the same young age exposed to a single risk factor(Silvana and Steve, 2003).

The Drug Prevention programs can be implemented in different environments: for example, at school, in local communities and families. Because young people spend much of their day at school, the school is an ideal environment for implementing programs to reduce or eliminate both the risk of early use of substances and the risk of future delinquent behavior. It is at school that young people have the opportunity to learn the knowledge and skills needed to prevent and reduce drug use (Ellickson and Bell, 2008). In recent years, several prevention programs have been evaluated and many of them have successful results. Research and evaluations to date indicate that certain components of prevention programs implemented in schools have shown promise and have demonstrated their effectiveness in different schools (John, 2001).

Project SUCCESS (The Drug Prevention Program)

Project SUCCESS (Schools Using Coordinated Community Efforts to Strengthen Students)is designed for high-risk youth (called a targeted intervention).It builds on the school attendance of highly specialized personnel whose task is to provide various services related to prevention of substance use and make early interventions. This project was tested in an alternative school that includes students with problems aged 14 to 18 from multiethnic families generally low or moderate incomes. The objective of this program is to prevent and reduce substance use among high-risk students attending high school and facing multiple problems.

Project SUCCESS is based on a partnership between a prevention agency and alternative school. A professional with solid experience in the field of prevention of substance use among adolescents is hired by the school as an advisor to ...