Drug Prevention Programs of Today - Research Paper Example

Drug prevention programs of today Drug abuse is one of the most important problems faced by humanity because it curbs the physical and mental development of the individuals who are under its influence. The most harmful drugs like marijuana, heroin and hashish are produced in the Middle Eastern area of Asia and illegally exported to the West. Within the context of drug abuse, peer group influence is an important factor. On the other sides, schools, parents and community can play an important role in reducing the influence of drugs among the youngsters.

Besides, drug abuse cannot be considered as an individual problem because it hinders individuals from being productive citizens. Still, drug prevention programs are helpful to reduce the influence of harmful drugs among the youngsters. Thesis statement: Within the context of drug prevention in USA, the programs which focus upon individuals in the fight against drug abuse are not successful, but the programs which co-ordinates schools, parents and community in the fight against drug abuse proves to be successful to an extent.

Various drug prevention programs utilized today Strengthening Families Program For Parents and Youth, 10–14: One can see that this drug prevention program aims to provide guidance to the parents on managing their children, communicate with their children and to provide academic support to their children. Besides, this program helps the parents to be active participants in the fight against drugs in America. The Adolescent Transitions Program: This is a unique drug prevention program which aims to reduce/prevent the influence of drugs among the adolescents.

On the other side, The Family Check Up level of this program is helpful to assess the problems faced by the families. At the same time, the families which face the problem of drug addiction are assisted with due care and attention. For instance, coaching classes and therapeutic care is provided to the members of the families which face the problem of drug addiction. Project Towards No Drug Abuse: This program is formulated to provide help to the students who are undergoing high school education.

One can easily identify that high school period is a transitional period in which peer group influence is strong. Within this context, this drug prevention program aims to identify the students who failed to be successful in academic performance and influenced by drugs. One can see that failure in academic performance and drug addiction can lead to behavioral problems among the children. Project STAR: This is one of the most important drug prevention programs, aiming to protect the members of the community from the influence of harmful drugs.

Besides, this program seeks help from the community to prevent drug addiction among the youth. This program aims to co-ordinate all the factors which help the authorities to prevent the influence of drugs among the youngsters. Caring School Community Program: This program aims to co-ordinate families and schools to prevent the scope of drug addiction among the elementary school level children. One can see that this program provides ample importance to the relation between elementary schools and the children.

Besides, schools play an important role in preparing and strengthening children to keep themselves away from the influence of drugs. Project ALERT: This program aims to prevent drug abuse/addiction among the students in the middle schools. Besides, this program is related to the middle school curriculum. One can easily identify that preventive measures can reduce the influence of drug abuse among the youth. Califano (2009) states that “Every five years, substance abuse and addiction claimed some three million Americans- more people than have died in all our wars and auto accidents combined” (p.11). On the other side, medical treatment for drug abuse is expensive and time consuming.

In addition, this program creates awareness on almost all the drugs that are used by the youngsters. Why some programs are successful in fighting drug abuse? The Strengthening Families Program For Parents and Youth, 10–14 program did not prove to be successful because the parents in rural areas were not aware of the importance of their role in reducing the influence of drugs among their children. Besides, the authorities failed to provide ample importance to time scheduling of this program (say, time scheduling of this program was problematic for the parents).

But innovative measures like helping the parents by providing babysitting facilities, easy transportation, food etc can improve the outcome of this program. On the other side, The Adolescent Transitions Program proved to be successful because the authorities were able to gain the confidence of the families which face the problem of drug addiction. Besides, the involvement of schools, children and the parents in this program is helpful to find out the grass root level reason behind the problem of drug addiction.

The involvement of schools and parents helped the students to gain confidence and to be away from the influence of harmful drugs. The Project Towards No Drug Abuse program proved to be successful because it was helpful to attract students towards education. Besides, this program helped the participants to realize their problems. At the same time, this program helped the participants to gain confidence and eventually led to the development of decision making capacity among the participants. The Project STAR program proved to be successful because it helped to identify the factors which lead the youngsters to drug addiction.

On the other side, the inculcation of preventive measures in the school curriculum (say, middle school) was helpful for the students to realize the harmful effects of drug abuse. Besides, mass media played an important role in creating awareness among the youth on the side effects of drug abuse. In short, this drug prevention program proved to be most successful because its impact was long-lasting. The Caring School Community Program is successful within the context of elementary education because motivation and proper guidance reduced the scope of drug abuse/addiction among the children.

At the same time, the involvement of parents and community played an important role in the success of this program. The research outcome of Project ALERT program proves that the participants were able to keep themselves away from the influence of marijuana, alcohol and tobacco products. At the same time, this program proved to be successful among high/low risk addicts of drugs. So, one can see that this program, as the part of school curriculum, helped the participants to be away from the influence of harmful drugs.

In short, co-operation and co-ordination of the different branches of a society plays the most important role in the fight against drug abuse. Summing, various drug prevention programs (family-based, school-based, etc.) utilized today proves that preventive measures can reduce the influence of drugs among the youngsters. At the same time, the authorities must try to co-ordinate different branches of the society to fight against drug abuse. From a different angle of view, drug abuse must not be considered as an individual problem.

Instead, it must be considered as a problem which curbs the development of the society as a whole. Besides, the evaluation of the different drug prevention programs prove that innovative programs which co-ordinates schools, parents and community in the fight against drug abuse leads to success. Works Cited Califano, J. A. (2009). High Society: How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What to Do about It. New York, NY: ReadHowYouWant.com.