The major problem facing young people in almost every corner of the world is the problem of drug abuse. It is a widely held belief that young people are at increased risk of drug abuse. There also exist considerable debates on the influence of drug abuse patterns and how young people acquire the habit of abusing drugs. Much of the influence has been attributed to the family, its values, beliefs and behaviour of the parents with regard to substance use and abuse. As such, the involvement of young people with drugs can be largely attributed to parental influence.
On a broader perspective, the main determining factor has been culture which even the parents are a slave to. Culture sets the norms and expectancies around drug use, defining what, when, whether, how and how much drugs young people should use. For instance, the use of drugs such as alcohol and cannabis is deeply rooted in culture. Experiences with drugs, especially alcohol and cannabis, are prevalent among the young people than with other groups. In many cultures, drug use, especially drinking, is highly discouraged before adulthood.
However, the popular culture has led to young people being introduced to drugs at an earlier age, probably within the family in the context of meals and celebrations. This permissive and integrative approach to drinking is common in cultures with Mediterranean style of drinking. The drinking pattern of young people is generally determined by the overall drinking culture. For instance, young people within the Mediterranean culture are likely to drink than their counterparts in other region. (Currie, 2004:32) However, they are often less likely to engage in dangerous drinking habits unlike their Scandinavian counterparts.
These findings show that culture play an integral role in shaping drug abuse patterns for the young people. Other factors also help develop and shape young people’s attitude towards drug abuse, especially alcohol consumption. There are both direct and indirect relationship between drugs and drug problems. The problem develops from the integration of psychopharmacological aspects of the drug, method of administration, choices and circumstances of the user. Within the British policy discussions, the main problems associated with drug use has been crime, health problem and death.
However, these harms are randomly distributed within the British society. There are certain areas which seem more vulnerable to drug related harm than others. Such areas are mostly inhabited by communities or people who are mostly marginalized socially. Studies have shown that the socially marginalized groups of young people and those whose parents use drugs record high rates of drug use than the other young population (Budd, 2005:7). From this, socio-economic deprivation may be linked with drug dependence but not use. These factors mainly exist within the family since they largely depend on the general family attitude towards drugs.
Parents through their drug use habits may influence young people to adopt the same habits since as a young person grows within the family, he or she learns what is acceptable from it. For instance, in a family where one or both of the parents drink, there is a high likelihood of a child growing up within this set up to develop the habit of drinking. However, whether the habit harms the individual in future or not depends on several factors, mostly societal and cognitive. In the development of drug abuse patterns, the structure of the family may be a risk or protective factor.
Young people from strong family backgrounds in terms of support and close relationships are less likely to experience drug abuse patterns than those who come from a loosely structured family. As such, parent supervision and support is important in putting in check the behaviour of young people. Beyond this, there is also the influence of religion, peers and friends which play an integral part in influencing the decision of whether to engage in drugs or not. Religion tend to protect the young people from the negative influences of drugs hence, a religious young person is unlikely to be involved with drug abuse.
The dominant framework used to define responses to drug related issues is harm reduction. Some of the strategies which have often been proposed to be used in schools to curb drug use includes strong policies and guidelines to restrain drug use, strengthening the individual will and the capacity to avoid harm and working with other local bodies like the health, social welfare and the criminal justice. Among the factors which predispose young people to harm from drugs, environmental circumstances appear to be sometimes the most powerful.
The degree of harm experienced however depends on individual variations. It is always very important to prevent the beginning of drug use among the teenagers since this is the period they experience major cognitive, social, biological and emotional changes which may influence their decision to take drugs (Walters, 1994:67). Prevention programs in the United States have demonstrated success with regard to reducing drug use. However, reviews of research on school based drug abuse prevention pointed towards variability in the extent of program effects.
The approach that has been proposed by researchers as an effective and appropriate intervention method is the community approach. These community approaches as a way of realizing positive changes in the lives of the young people target the entire community. This method is deemed more appropriate as it is consistent with the traditions and values of the Native Americans. Evidence suggests that that positive impact has been realized with regard to alcohol and cannabis use through the adoption of community approaches. This is however inconclusive owing to lack of control groups and the use of poor evaluation methodology (Blackman, 2004:7).