PREVENT DRUG ABUSE AMONG YOUTH

Dear Sir,

Drugs are now cheaper and more readily available today than they were
a decade ago. The Cayman Islands addiction rates are at an
unprecedented high; the judicial system is clogged with drug-related
cases.

Adolescents consider alcohol and other drugs less harmful today than
they did a few years ago. For many the use of drugs, even the sale of
drugs, constitutes an attractive path to what they perceive as
entrance to adulthood. Society has been searching desperately for a
way to reach out to this group of high-risk individuals. Meanwhile,
serious research efforts aimed at prevention have gone through several
years of insight, without any real progress.

Community-wide preventive initiatives have made very little headway in
diminishing the use of "gateway" substances (tobacco, alcohol and
marijuana) in early adolescence. Several preventive programmes for
young adolescents have proven to reduce drug use.

The teaching of life skills is a very effective tool in the prevention
of cigarette smoking, and alcohol and marijuana use if applied with
sufficient intensity and duration. The systematic teachings and
application of these skills can contribute to personal competence and
provide constructive alternatives to health-damaging behaviour, as
well as giving those at risk a means to support them.

I suggest it would be a good idea to intensify and focus the sessions
in our high schools enabling hands-on experience. In doing so, the
preventive efforts of early interventions need to be sustained through
the senior year. The prevention of cigarette smoking is vitally
important, both because of its "gateway" function and the numerous
health risks throughout life that flow from this addiction in early
adolescence.

Beyond the targeted approach to substance abuse, parents, teachers,
and society should understand that adolescent immersion in high-risk
behaviour is magnified by developmental problems such as low
self-esteem, poor performance in school, depression, or inability to
make deliberate, informed decisions.

Our youth use drugs for different reasons; for some, using drugs may
be a way of feeling mature and sophisticated, others quickly follow
suit because all their peers are doing it, and they don't want to feel
left out or looked at differently.

In the most recent Cayman Islands Student Drugs Use Survey, done by
the National Drug Council in 2006, of the 2,945 enrolled students,
2,480 completed questionnaires. The statistics show that alcohol
remains the most common drug used by adolescents in the Cayman
Islands, with 68.8% of all students surveyed reporting lifetime use.
Let us not forget alcohol is the number one cause of death among the
youth population as a result of road fatalities.

The NDC survey also reported that 22.3% of all students smoke six or
more cigarettes per day. In 2006, 5.8% of all students in grades 7 to
12 reported using ganja at least once during the month before the
survey, and 4.3% used ganja six or more times in the past year.
Generally speaking, the survey shows that ganja use by Cayman Islands
students is lower than that of students in North America.

However, with this being said, it is not acceptable to compare
ourselves to others and ignore the growing drug problem in our
schools. To take a view that we are not as bad as others is not the
right way to go.

Must we wait for a crisis to act?

No!

We need to work hard to reduce the statistics. We as a nation need to
step up and be an international leader in the fight against drug abuse
amongst our youth. My suggestion is, since we are spending $50 million
a year fighting crime, perhaps it would be a great idea to budget a
few dollars preventing it from happening.

George Roper