Essay Example about the Drug Prevention Programs in Singapore

In the drug prevention programs in Singapore, risk factors include societal aspects such as crime-related activities, family factors, education level, employment, and financial position of young people. According to the risk concepts, several preventive and intervention programmes can be implemented and applied to reduce the risk factors of drug abuse in the country. It can be stated that the community-based purposes and their associative preferences and planning basis in Singapore can support the entire process for reducing risk factors of drug abuse. The prevention and intervention measures access the best criteria for the people who are affected by it and need to get proper support to solve the drug menace. The risk process can be defined as per their various cultural incorporation, implementing the anti-national elements and the strategic progression need to place within the proper purposes for the different and familiar preferences along with the market basis in a symmetric manner (Wegman et al. 2017).

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The findings presented different themes derived from the data coding. These five identified themes from the analysis explain how risk is being defined in the drug crime prevention programme in Singapore. From the collateral (Appendix 2), (Appendix 12) and (Appendix 56) one can identify the theme peer pressure and influence. In (Appendix 56), the interviewee reveals that he saw his brother smoking Cannabis and was curious to try it out. Peers may lead someone to drug abuse using and misconceptions (appendix 60).

Theme one: Experimentation

The research findings aim at answering what is observed as low, moderate, and high-risk factors in drug prevention programmes in Singapore. According to the results, low, moderate, and high-risk factors include aspects, characteristics, attributes, and factors among people that promote and encourage drug abuse in Singapore. These attributes include social aspects such as crime, violence, social groupings, family factors, and individual traits that tend to promote the use of drugs among citizens in the country. According to the research social factors such as crime have a high rate of promoting drug abuse in which case, criminals resort to the use of drugs to maintain the hard-core mentality needed in criminal activities. At the same time, family attributes and factors may stand out as moderate risk factors in drug use and especially in drug prevention programmes. For instance, a family that accepts to implement prevention programmes such as community policing and prevention measures have a high chance of reducing risk factors in drug abuse and see to it that the prevention programmes succeed. Experimentation has been identified as one of the themes from the collaterals provided. Griffin, Botvin, and Nicholas (2003) researched on 29 inner-city middle schools in Singapore and, among those interviewed, 21% were identified to be abusing drugs. According to Griffin, Botvin, and Nicholas (2003), early experimentation leads to heavy use of drug substance later in life. Alcohol and cigarettes are the primary drugs used by these teenagers. Athur, Hawkins, Polaard, and Catalano (2012) argues that those teens who tried cigarettes during their early teenage hood are three times likely to start using a pack a day when they reach the high school seniors.

Theme Two: Peer Pressure and Influence

Griffin, Botvin, and Nicholas (2003) argue that various factors are highly associated with high risk of these teenagers not only starting but continuing to use hard drugs. Some of these factors include peer social influences which were marked as a significant factor that escalated the use of drugs and substance among teenagers. Peer influence takes a variety of forms which may include making these drugs and material available to their friends, teenagers experiencing peer pressure from the rest, constant encouragement, and finally, these peers may increase the normative expectation of prevalence of drug and substance use (Appendix 56) (Athur et al., 2012)

Theme three: Identity

The third theme identified from the collateral (Appendix 52) is identity. According to Abot and Saxena (2014), people with high intelligence are more likely to experiment with drugs unlike those people with low knowledge. Identity attributes such as highly intelligent, street smart intelligent people are always curious to try out new adventures and can easily influence the rest of the team. Griffin, Botvin, and Nicholas (2003) also argue that once teenagers have been introduced to drugs when they are young, there are high chances that they might experience additional adverse outcomes when these people reach a later young age or in early adulthood (Appendix 61). It is because some people have qualities that distinguish them. Some were wealthy, talented while others decided to abuse drugs and waste their lives, hoping they will be remembered (Appendix 52) and (Appendix 34). Also, a low degree of commitment especially at a school that results in reduced performance has also been linked to the teenage use of drugs and substance. According to Griffin, Botvin, and Nicholas, (2003) and Nikmanesh, Baluchi, Akbar, and Motlagh (2017) teenagers who have poor performance at school are more likely to start engaging in drug and substance abuse. These teenagers can abuse tobacco and alcohol because they want to establish an identity so that they can enrich the perception of how other peers view them (Appendix 10). Athur, Hawkins, Polaard, and Catalano (2012) also agree with these views by noting that academic failure, especially among teenagers, motivates drug abuse. However, they add that early anti-social behavior in the family also predicts early drug abuse (Appendix 41). Also, when a child fails in late elementary school, it may activate antisocial behavior which later leads to drug use. Griffin, Botvin, and Nicholas, (2003) argue that according to problem behavior theory, adolescents can engage in harmful activities because they want to achieve developmental goals which they believe cannot be made in more adaptive ways. These people might start being physically violent, have delinquent behavior, have poor health and also experience mental problems. Some may decide to start abusing drugs to show that they are worth.

Again, this does not discuss how your findings allow for answering the research question - and the general discussions of literature belong into the literature review. In the discussing, you need to discuss this specifically about your findings - you need to show how theories explained previously allow for an interpretation of the data

Theme four: Violent Environment

The subject of the violent environment has been identified from the collateral (Appendix 50) and (Appendix 61). Hasselt et al., (1993) argue that according to the research they carried out on inner-city youth on 45 respondents, 90% of them are at high risk of drug abuse and substance because they are exposed to a violent environment. Hawkins, Catalano, and Miller (2001) argue that there are various factors which promote low, middle and high-risk behavior in drug abuse. Some of these factors which he discussed include availability, family, and drug behavior attitudes (Appendix 41) and (Appendix 23) and legal restrictions to purchase of these drugs and substances (Gilbert & Griffin, 2014).

Individual and interpersonal factors

According to Hawkins, Catalano, and Miller (2001), specific characteristics and the environments people live in are highly connected with the higher risk of adolescent drug and substance abuse (Appendix 59) and (Appendix 54). According to the research findings, Singapore has a high rate of crime, violence, and groupings that encourage the use of drugs both in homes and streets. The groupings and violent actions often and many a time are the leading factors to drug abuse. These characteristics according to the research findings and Lu, Pinchas, and son, (2016), including physiological, where an individual is involved in seeking and low harm avoidance which can be equated to early onset of alcoholism (Appendix 51). Low-income family management is attributed to lack of consistent parenting, (Appendix 36), lack of time to impart discipline in the children and irresponsible parenting (Appendix 49). Family conflict is also another factor where most affected children come from broken homes. Broken homes and domestic violence is a higher risk of delinquency which brings these children to start abusing drugs and substance. The above revelations will help reduce drug use and positively influence recommended social behaviors hence mitigate the high number of drug users in the country.

Theme five: Availability

The last but not least issue identified in this paper is the availability of drugs (Appendix 31). According to Athur, Hawkins, Polaard, and Catalano (2012), most people under the age of thirty all around the world are suffering from drug and substance abuse because they can easily be accessed (Appendix 6). This abuse is attributed to the availability of drugs, accommodating lifestyles and social pressure (appendix 2), (Appendix10) and (Appendix 12). Availability of drugs is highly dependent on the laws and norms of the society. If alcohol is available, consumption in the region will be at higher levels than it is currently (Appendix 12). It applies to other drugs including cigarettes, marijuana, and other illegal drugs which were noted to be available to young teenagers in junior high school members in Singapore and this availability increases the influence of using these drugs more than individual characteristics of the people abusing them (Staying drug-free, 2016). Extreme economic deprivations which include poverty, overcrowding, and inadequate, poor housing are also associated with the high-risk behavior of drug and substance abuse. Extreme poverty adversely impacts on the behavior of a child which can develop into alcoholism in future. Since Singapore has a high population, there is lack of natural surveillance, especially in public places. There is also high residential mobility, deep attachments to high neighborhood rates of juvenile and adult crime, and illegal drug trafficking. According to Hawkins, Catalano, and Miller (2001), inappropriate behavior and lack of enough resources in a community are highly related to the criminal subculture vulnerable to drug and substance abuse.

Prevention and Intervention

Numerous strategies and measures can be applied to implement prevention and intervention strategies in line with the research findings and studies. For the prevention and intervention, different concepts can be used to derive how crime prevention utilize risk to bring forward the drug deterrence. One of it is the vulnerability and resiliency concepts that can be utilized to identify individual susceptivity to risk. According to the research findings and Athur, Hawkins, Polaard, and Catalano (2012) protection should enhance resilience to the risk these people are exposed to including extreme poverty cases, poor education, poor economic background. Once resistance has been reinforced, it is hard to challenge their values and particular strength imparted (Appendix 22), (Appendix 21) and (Appendix 20). In case of delay and the person turns out to be an addict, the teenager should visit a physician for help. The strategy would go a long way in addressing frequent drug use among family members. The physician is required to submit a report to the authorities (central narcotics bureau). The above strategy is relevant to the findings and research as it would help curb rampant drug use among family m...