Support in Theory
SUPPORT in that all adults, families and abusers should be entitled to drug prevention, i.e. information, facts, advice and treatment.
Families with drug users in the family need support and understanding - in brief, social consciousness and concern commencing at the home and community level.
Support in Practice
Drug prevention is the key. The basis of prevention
is KNOWLEDGE. Adults must seek the facts from reliable
professionals, libraries, anti-drug organisations, etc.
Adults must encourage schools to include drug prevention
in school curriculum. Both adults and youth must have
uptodate information about drugs: what they look like,
the effect of drugs on the consumer, how to detect the
early signs of drug abuse.
Families of drug users should seek SUPPORT from professionals or self-help
groups. Courses and group therapy should be available. Family involvement is
essential.
EURAD organisations contribute to the distribution of these facts. EURAD can help you by giving addresses of persons and organisations in your countries who can provide you with brochure, booklets, videos, etc.
Resistance in Theory
RESISTANCE by parents, social worker, youth workers, teachers, church leaders, police, etc. in the form of education and of constant vigilance and interference in the street trade to intervene at all levels of private consumption.
Not everyone who tries drugs develops dependence and becomes an addict. Tragically, all too many do. The drugs market must therefore be continuously subjected to disturbance at all levels to make the risk of discovery great and to make people refrain from experimenting with drugs.
Resistance in Practice
RESISTANCE to drug use can be implemented be EARLY INTERVENTION. Early intervention is first based on knowledge (see Drug prevention above). However, it is also based on adults, interest in youth. The first and maybe the most important frontline of resistance is formed by ordinary adults. They are the ones who should react if they suspect drug abuse. If the adults close to a youth intervenes early, they are most likely to be able to stop the drug career, thereby saving the youth from trouble, both with their health and with the law.
RESISTANCE is also closely connected with DISCOVERY. Consequently it is important that parent, school and church organisations, leisure centres, social authorities and the police try to co-operate in order to detect abuse at an early stage.
Many adults ask themselves how to find out if someone has 'tested' drugs. With alcohol a normal sense of smell is of course enough. But is somebody has used e.g. hashish it will be considered more difficult. Adults must learn to put together a puzzle. This puzzle consists of physical signs in combination with the change of behaviour of youngsters.
The late Prof. N. Bejerot, MD, from Sweden, founder
of the EURAD policy, summed it up in a lecture at the
PRIDE Conference, Atlanta in April 1988 form which we
quote:
"The situation need not to be regarded as hopeless. The problem is not due to
obscure goals. The narcotic drug conventions of the United States provide distinct
guiding lines for official drug policies. Drugs may only be used for medical
or scientific reasons. All other use, including recreational consumption, is
forbidden and should in principle be stopped. Every country may choose suitable
methods of its own to ensure this outcome. Interference against drug abusers
is humane if it is done in the right way. The reason or action is that drug abuse,
sooner or later - usually sooner - leads to a drug dependence which is difficult
to handle."
The following is a description of the practical work in the municipality of Upplands Vasby, Sweden, which illustrates the theories of the EURAD THIRD WORLD POLICY of SUPPORT AND RESISTANCE
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