Free Essay Samples on Antidrug Solutions

Drugs have always been abused despite the fact that its a subject to a penalty. Some light drugs have recently been legalized, but it hasnt stopped people from heavier drugs. As the quantity of drug addicts is constantly growing, the national public health goal is to prevent the usage of psychoactive drugs. One of the ways of drug control is drug testing that is aimed at identifying those people who use drugs. There are several drug testing methods such as those that use urine, sweat, hair and oral fluids samples, but urine testing method is the most common one. This test is conducted in most organizations, companies and also at some schools. Conducting such test is a positive solution to drug usage prevention, but some problems may appear: the test cannot be 100% accurate and there is strong evidence, that the test may not identify same-day drug use. One more common problem of drug testing is the possibility to cheat, for example students may bring someone elses urine samples, instead of their own. Students with positive results are likely to be expelled from their school that may badly influence their lives.

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Its essential to take preventive measures against drug usage among students. In recent times much work has been done in schools to define the reasons of drug abuse and develop effective prevention strategies.

Over the last years a lot of antidrug programs have appeared as a result of increased drug abuse. The programs are based on some specific models. We can determine three main models that dominate school-age antidrug programs. They are: 1) Informational model 2) Affective model 3) Social model. Each of the models has its own function.

Informational model is the most common one and its function is to provide information about drugs and the consequences of drug abuse. This model focuses on providing factual information without conducting any training concerning drug prevention. The main concept of this model is that adolescents are fully informed about all dangers of using drugs and this helps them to remain drug free. But unfortunately there are several inherent dangers in educating youngsters about the dangers of drug abuse. First of all too much information can be confusing for teenagers so that they may not easily distinguish all pros and cons of using psychoactive drugs. Moreover, providing youngsters with specific information how drugs are used by drug addicts and giving them pharmacological details may arouse their curiosity and provoke them to use drugs. In such way the informational model can result in an increase in drug use.

In contrast to informational model that focuses on teaching facts about drugs and seems to be ineffective, affective model pays attention to a psychological aspect of the individual. The concept of this model implies row of people that have some psychological aptitude to become drug addicts. The main aim is to study these psychological factors and help students to overcome their personal drawbacks and decrease the risk of using drugs. Affective model emphasizes personal and social development of the individuals, so the attention is paid to the affective side of the drug abuse problem, but not to cognitive one. Affective model also includes conducting training and despite some drawbacks seems to be more effective than informational model.

Nevertheless there is much work to do in this direction as the problem of drug abuse still hasnt been solved.

Sources

Gilbert J. Botvin, Elizabeth M. Botvin, Hirsch Ruchlin. School-Based Approaches to Drug Abuse Prevention: Evidence for Effectiveness and Suggestions for Determining Cost-Effectiveness. Source link:

https://archives.drugabuse.gov/pdf/monographs/monograph176/059-082_Botvin.pdfLobello Carmel. The many problems with employee drug-testing The Times, November 20, 2013. Source link:

http://theweek.com/articles/455924/many-problems-employee-drugtestingTiffany John. Should students be drug tested at school? Source link: http://www.centeronaddiction.org/the-buzz-blog/should-students-be-drug-tested-school