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tagged w/ Drug Education
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(Not) Teaching Kids About Sex and Drugs: The Failures of Prohibitionist Education
When it comes to making policy decisions, science seems less and less popular these days. David Nutt was sacked as the UK government's chief drugs advisor for publicly stating what science had already proven: that tobacco and alcohol are more harmful than marijuana, ecstasy and LSD.
Too often our society lets fear dictate how we deal with our children's inevitable exposure to sex and drugs.
In an ideal world, teenagers would wait until they were more firmly settled psychologically before experimenting and making adult decisions about sex and drugs - due to the complications and risks that such decisions inevitably bring with them. However today's reality is a culture where children are exposed to adult themes at younger and younger ages.
In America we teach abstinence-only education in the hope that by not teaching kids harm-minimizing techniques such as birth control and contraception, they will simply not have sex. Unfortunately, there is now concrete evidence that this doesn't work. Studies show that, following a decade-long decline 'U.S. teen pregnancy rates have increased as both births and abortions rise.'
http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2010/01/26/index.html
As a teenager most of my friends' parents were strong abolitionists. If any of them had found out their son or daughter were smoking the occasional joint or having sex, they would have permanently grounded them or even kicked them out of the house. Needless to say this didn't stop them. So what can parents and teachers do to help teens mature into young adults who make responsible decisions?
Maybe if someone taught them how to minimize risks when imbibing mind-altering substances in the same way one learns about units when drinking alcohol. Maybe if schools taught about emotional and physical intimacy (and of course, contraception) alongside lessons on physiology and sex.
What passes for 'sex education' in America is, frankly, disgraceful. For over a quarter century, the federal government has supported abstinence-only education programs that censor information to youth. America still has the highest rate of teen pregnancies in the developed world, 1.5 times the teen pregnancy rate of Britain (the highest in Europe.)
The United States’ teen pregnancy rate is over five times that of the Netherlands, over four times that of Germany, and over three times that of France. The obvious explanation is that young people in the United States are significantly less likely to use contraception than youth in these European nations.
These statistics come as no surprise when you look at the number of programs that teach abstinence-only-until-marriage: an unrealistic, morality-based agenda that ignores the fact that virtually all Americans have sex before marriage (a fact that has been true since the 1950s). Amplify Your Voice, a sex-education and youth-education organization, has published several videos featuring animated bears discussing real abstinence-only lessons being taught in classrooms. Losing one's virginity as a girl can be difficult enough, never mind with lessons like these at school:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoIeXgCfwNI&feature=player_embedded
The organization says the "chewed up candy" exercise is from AC Green's Game Plan, an abstinence-only program endorsed by the former basketball star that is used in many public schools in Illinois. The "Spit in a Cup" exercise is from "Why Am I Tempted," a program which received funding under President Obama's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI) to be taught in schools in Florida.
These programs censor information about contraception and condoms while stigmatizing and shaming students who have already had sex. Never mind the fact that they discriminate against LGBT youth by at best ignoring them altogether - or worse, promoting homophobia by teaching students that homosexuality is deviant and immoral.
Drug education is also in the dark ages. From the Economist:
"Until recently the dominant approach was Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), a programme developed in Los Angeles in 1983 and quickly exported to the rest of America. Cops would arrive in schools, sometimes driving cars confiscated from drug-dealers, and tell 11- and 12-year-olds about the dangers of illicit substances. They drew little or no distinction between marijuana and methamphetamine. Teachers liked DARE because they felt uncomfortable tackling the topic themselves, and because they got a break. Parents liked it because they felt their children would listen to police officers. Unfortunately, they did not. "
http://www.economist.com/node/13234144
Studies are constantly conducted to see if drug education is effective in preventing drug use. Maybe researchers are asking the wrong question. Accepting that the urge to alter one's consciousness is actually a universal human (and animal) drive (see http://www.amazon.com/Intoxication-Universal-Drive-Mind-Altering-Substances/dp/1594770697), we should be looking at how that can be accomplished safely. If kids were taught about harm reduction, the potential for compulsive use and addiction, how to make sure you don't exceed the correct dosage, etc. would we not stand a better chance of eliminating unnecessary deaths from drug abuse?
But of course when it comes to drugs, we're even farther away from this ideal than we are with sex. For at least most people agree that it's natural for teenagers to want to start experimenting sexually, whereas our society can't seem to accept drug experimentation in adults, never mind teens.
This mindset, based on stigma, judgement, stereotypes, and puritanical denial of basic human urges, can do nothing but make the situation worse. Teens see the hypocrisy of adults drinking alcohol and then telling them not to 'do drugs'. They see their friends getting stoned and not turning into junkies. They find out their parents once experimented too.
So it's their turn to experiment - and that's exactly what they do. During this naive experimentation kids consume impure substances purchased on the street, combine drugs that shouldn't be mixed, overdose because they didn't know how much they were taking. But who was there to teach them?
At the same time, young adults inevitably explore their sexuality, either with or without guidance from the adult world in regards to physical precautions that can be taken and the emotional implications of becoming intimate with another human being.
Parents' strict prohibitionist attitudes backfire as they're no longer on the list of people their kids can talk to about these new and sometimes overwhelming experiences. They lose touch with their own children. Their ability to retain influence and stay involved during this crucial time in young adulthood all but disappears.
At the end of the day, the problem is that the majority of adults are not comfortable with their own sexuality or history of drug-taking, and they're certainly not comfortable imagining their kids doing the same thing they did when they were younger. If parents don't start growing up themselves, why should they expect their kids to?
Read more at www.thedailytransmission.comWhen it comes to making policy decisions, science seems less and less popular these... more-
- unconventional
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- 1 year ago
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(Not) Teaching Kids About Sex and Drugs: The Failures of Prohibitionist Education
When it comes to making policy decisions, science seems less and less popular these days. David Nutt was sacked as the UK government's chief drugs advisor for publicly stating what science had already proven: that tobacco and alcohol are more harmful than marijuana, ecstasy and LSD.
Too often our society lets fear dictate how we deal with our children's inevitable exposure to sex and drugs.
In an ideal world, teenagers would wait until they were more firmly settled psychologically before experimenting and making adult decisions about sex and drugs - due to the complications and risks that such decisions inevitably bring with them. However today's reality is a culture where children are exposed to adult themes at younger and younger ages.
In America we teach abstinence-only education in the hope that by not teaching kids harm-minimizing techniques such as birth control and contraception, they will simply not have sex. Unfortunately, there is now concrete evidence that this doesn't work. Studies show that, following a decade-long decline 'U.S. teen pregnancy rates have increased as both births and abortions rise.'
http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2010/01/26/index.html
As a teenager most of my friends' parents were strong abolitionists. If any of them had found out their son or daughter were smoking the occasional joint or having sex, they would have permanently grounded them or even kicked them out of the house. Needless to say this didn't stop them. So what can parents and teachers do to help teens mature into young adults who make responsible decisions?
Maybe if someone taught them how to minimize risks when imbibing mind-altering substances in the same way one learns about units when drinking alcohol. Maybe if schools taught about emotional and physical intimacy (and of course, contraception) alongside lessons on physiology and sex.
What passes for 'sex education' in America is, frankly, disgraceful. For over a quarter century, the federal government has supported abstinence-only education programs that censor information to youth. America still has the highest rate of teen pregnancies in the developed world, 1.5 times the teen pregnancy rate of Britain (the highest in Europe.)
The United States’ teen pregnancy rate is over five times that of the Netherlands, over four times that of Germany, and over three times that of France. The obvious explanation is that young people in the United States are significantly less likely to use contraception than youth in these European nations.
These statistics come as no surprise when you look at the number of programs that teach abstinence-only-until-marriage: an unrealistic, morality-based agenda that ignores the fact that virtually all Americans have sex before marriage (a fact that has been true since the 1950s). Amplify Your Voice, a sex-education and youth-education organization, has published several videos featuring animated bears discussing real abstinence-only lessons being taught in classrooms. Losing one's virginity as a girl can be difficult enough, never mind with lessons like these at school:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoIeXgCfwNI&feature=player_embedded
The organization says the "chewed up candy" exercise is from AC Green's Game Plan, an abstinence-only program endorsed by the former basketball star that is used in many public schools in Illinois. The "Spit in a Cup" exercise is from "Why Am I Tempted," a program which received funding under President Obama's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI) to be taught in schools in Florida.
These programs censor information about contraception and condoms while stigmatizing and shaming students who have already had sex. Never mind the fact that they discriminate against LGBT youth by at best ignoring them altogether - or worse, promoting homophobia by teaching students that homosexuality is deviant and immoral.
Drug education is also in the dark ages. From the Economist:
"Until recently the dominant approach was Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), a programme developed in Los Angeles in 1983 and quickly exported to the rest of America. Cops would arrive in schools, sometimes driving cars confiscated from drug-dealers, and tell 11- and 12-year-olds about the dangers of illicit substances. They drew little or no distinction between marijuana and methamphetamine. Teachers liked DARE because they felt uncomfortable tackling the topic themselves, and because they got a break. Parents liked it because they felt their children would listen to police officers. Unfortunately, they did not. "
http://www.economist.com/node/13234144
Studies are constantly conducted to see if drug education is effective in preventing drug use. Maybe researchers are asking the wrong question. Accepting that the urge to alter one's consciousness is actually a universal human (and animal) drive (see http://www.amazon.com/Intoxication-Universal-Drive-Mind-Altering-Substances/dp/1594770697), we should be looking at how that can be accomplished safely. If kids were taught about harm reduction, the potential for compulsive use and addiction, how to make sure you don't exceed the correct dosage, etc. would we not stand a better chance of eliminating unnecessary deaths from drug abuse?
But of course when it comes to drugs, we're even farther away from this ideal than we are with sex. For at least most people agree that it's natural for teenagers to want to start experimenting sexually, whereas our society can't seem to accept drug experimentation in adults, never mind teens.
This mindset, based on stigma, judgement, stereotypes, and puritanical denial of basic human urges, can do nothing but make the situation worse. Teens see the hypocrisy of adults drinking alcohol and then telling them not to 'do drugs'. They see their friends getting stoned and not turning into junkies. They find out their parents once experimented too.
So it's their turn to experiment - and that's exactly what they do. During this naive experimentation kids consume impure substances purchased on the street, combine drugs that shouldn't be mixed, overdose because they didn't know how much they were taking. But who was there to teach them?
At the same time, young adults inevitably explore their sexuality, either with or without guidance from the adult world in regards to physical precautions that can be taken and the emotional implications of becoming intimate with another human being.
Parents' strict prohibitionist attitudes backfire as they're no longer on the list of people their kids can talk to about these new and sometimes overwhelming experiences. They lose touch with their own children. Their ability to retain influence and stay involved during this crucial time in young adulthood all but disappears.
At the end of the day, the problem is that the majority of adults are not comfortable with their own sexuality or history of drug-taking, and they're certainly not comfortable imagining their kids doing the same thing they did when they were younger. If parents don't start growing up themselves, why should they expect their kids to?When it comes to making policy decisions, science seems less and less popular these... more-
- unconventional
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- 1 year ago
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- 0 comments
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Illinois will end all drug treatment funds
Illinois will end all state funding for substance-abuse treatment and prevention programs next month, a move that could close some alcohol and drug-treatment centers across the state, advocates say.
State officials told providers on Friday that deep spending cuts proposed in Gov. Pat Quinn's fiscal 2012 budget, which starts July 1, will be imposed for the current fiscal year as of March 15.
Providers like Prairie Health Systems in Champaign, which were already gearing up to fight the proposed 2012 cuts, now face the prospect of laying off employees and cutting off services to clients within weeks.
"It's the most devastating picture possible. There's real concern about the entire system being shut down because providers will close," said Sara Howe, chief executive officer of the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association in Springfield.
Howe said she was notified by Department of Human Services Secretary Michelle Saddler early Friday that all state general revenue funding for addiction prevention and treatment would be eliminated as of March 15. The system would rely only on federal Medicaid dollars.
That would mean only those who qualify for Medicaid, the government health insurance system for the poor, would be eligible for treatment services, she said.
Only about 20 percent of the clients at state-funded treatment centers are Medicaid-eligible, "so 80 percent of our clients on March 15 would be thrown out of care," or about 55,000 people, she said.
Howe said the state is also eliminating its funding for addiction-prevention services, which help almost 230,000 youths in communities throughout the state each year.
"It's the least expensive way to deal with addiction – prevent it before it starts," she said.
Bruce Suardini, CEO of Prairie Health System, said about 60 percent of his funding comes through the Department of Human Services' alcohol and substance abuse division, including about $1.35 million annually from general revenue funding, which would be lost.
Prairie Health also receives funding for its $4.8 million budget from other federal grants, local funding sources like the United Way and Champaign County Mental Health Board, third-party insurance and self-pay clients. The agency, which has 85 employees, serves about 5,000 people a year through its prevention, outpatient, residential and detoxification programs, he said.
The state also plans to implement 6 percent reductions in Medicaid reimbursement rates, Suardini said. And Medicaid funding for substance abuse treatment is limited to women, so men wouldn't be covered, he said.
He isn't sure how Prairie Health will absorb the funding cuts, saying he has an emergency board meeting scheduled for Monday.
In response to questions from The News-Gazette, Department of Human Services spokeswoman Stacey Solano e-mailed a statement saying that "increased demand for services during the economic recession" had caused the department's budget deficit.
"The department is now faced with the difficult but necessary decision of reducing services in order to pay our bills for the remainder of the fiscal year while preserving core services. We are aware of the hardships these tough choices will create and value the commitment of our providers who serve some of the most vulnerable citizens of Illinois," the statement said.
The governor was given emergency budget authority for fiscal 2011, but Howe said her agency is working with legislators now to determine if he has the authority to make these cuts.
"There's still a question of the legality of cutting this much money at this time," she said.
The March 15 deadline gives providers little time to make decisions about staffing and inform clients about the impending change, Howe said.
"Many of them said they would be on the brink of shutdown," she said.
For fiscal 2012, the proposed cuts would total $54 million, Howe said. But no one's sure exactly how much money will be cut for the current fiscal year, because it's unclear how much the state has already spent, Howe said. The state is behind on its reimbursements to providers.
Prevention services that could be affected include Operation Snowball, Teen REACH and school-based programs, Howe said.
"We're talking about the majority of programs that we know are effective, that save the state money, and yet they're gone in one swoop," she said.
Dropping drug-treatment services also will have implications for hospitals, which are already seeing emergency rooms fill up with people who need services, she said.
"People cannot get into treatment, so they are instead turning to hospitals, at a much higher cost," she said.
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/politics-and-government/2011-02-19/state-will-end-all-drug-treatment-funds.htmlIllinois will end all state funding for substance-abuse treatment and prevention... more-
- bundlebear
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- 1 year ago
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- 4 comments
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Marijuana Overdose? No Such Thing
Half a million people die in the United States every year because of drugs and alcohol.
Marijuana has yet to kill one person, however.
A smoker would have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about fifteen minutes to induce a lethal response. That would cost approximately 3 million dollars.
Ranked by dependence, marijuana is less addictive than coffee:
http://tinyurl.com/lv9ucr
Source:
Jack E. Henningfield, PhD for NIDA, Reported by Philip J. Hilts, New York Times, Aug. 2, 1994 "Is Nicotine Addictive? It Depends on Whose Criteria You Use."Half a million people die in the United States every year because of drugs and... more-
- MirrorLake
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- 2 years ago
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- 31 comments
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Drunk 13-year-old dicing with death, expert warns
Prof Sellman said while most of his patients at his clinical youth psychiatry practice were aged between 13 and 18, he had treated children as young as 12 and was aware of even younger children who had taken risks with alcohol.
The risk of death from alcohol was significantly higher than from cannabis, but young people did not seem to know that and were influenced by campaigns showing drinking as attractive, he said.Prof Sellman said while most of his patients at his clinical youth psychiatry practice... more-
- JackHerer
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- 2 years ago
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- 3 comments
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Kids' book on weed: 'It's just a plant'
Sure enough, it's a kid's book about marijuana. In the same vein as sex education for kids, 'It's just a plant' is an illustrated children's book warning about the negatives and positives of adults partaking in a little herbal activity.
According to their website, the book 'explicitly addresses the potential harm of drug abuse and insists that marijuana is something not to be experimented with by children,
It follows the journey of a young girl as she learns about the plant from a diverse cast of characters including her parents, a local farmer, a doctor, and a police officer.
You can check out the link below for a run through of the story, it's a novel way of trying to educate kids.
http://justaplant.com/story/01.htmlSure enough, it's a kid's book about marijuana. In the same vein as sex... more-
- mattbrawn
- added this
- 4 years ago
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- 7 comments
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The War on Drugs is a War on Students
Under the Higher Education Act of 1998, a student will be denied federal financial aid because of one drug conviction. Since this penalty was enacted, hundreds of thousands of students have been affected.Under the Higher Education Act of 1998, a student will be denied federal financial aid... more-
- jcmoisan
- added this
- 4 years ago
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- 2 comments
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'Marijuana is not a drug, it's a leaf,' says Schwarzenegger
Already facing enough problems with the wild fires that have swept California, the state's governor Arnold Schwarzenegger may have stepped into a new row by claiming that marijuana is not a drug. In an interview with GQ magazine, the Hollywood star turned governor of California insisted: "I didn't take any drugs."Already facing enough problems with the wild fires that have swept California, the... more-
- jcmoisan
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- 4 years ago
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- 3 comments
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Legalization and donation.
how about the USA, Canada and Mexico legalize marijuana and all NET profit goes to NON profit NGOs of the 3 countries? if there is no rule being broken, there is no crime being committed. no weird turn around, no exceptions to the rule, how does Netherlands do it? just that applied to today's need for intrinsic good, simple. how about?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/134881_marijuana14.html
http://www.canorml.org/background/CA_legalization.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1153/a09.html
http://economics.about.com/od/incometaxestaxcuts/a/marijuana.htm
http://www.canaseed.com/CannabisNews.aspx?id=407
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3925
http://www.medicalmarihuana.ca/netherlands.html
http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/factsmyths/how about the USA, Canada and Mexico legalize marijuana and all NET profit goes to NON... more-
- lfm
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- 4 years ago
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Stop The Madness
Stacy Keach makes this all worthwhile-
- agentmule
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- 4 years ago
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- 7 comments
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