Drug Education in Schools

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In today’s society, there is a larger variety of drugs that are used, drugs have become easily accessible, and drugs are more likely to be misused. Drugs are commonly misused because of the lack of education people have surrounding how the drug should be taken, or what the consequences of taking the drug may be. Drug education is planned information and skills that are relevant to living in a world where drugs have become more commonly misused (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_education). For teachers, implementing drug education can help individuals to gain knowledge about drugs that they may be introduced to or come into contact with, and help to prevent the use and misuse of drugs among the students in the classroom. By students gaining this information, the prevention can be expanded into the community.
The first step when beginning to implement drug education in a classroom or school is for the individual that is considering the topic to deem why the implementation is important. There are three main reasons teachers have found the implementation to be important. The first reason is that students are more likely to come in contact with drugs by hearing about them, or using them. By having a program implemented into a classroom or school, it can assist individuals to gain knowledge about the topic. The purpose of this is to help individuals make healthy, responsible decisions about drugs now and in the future that will reflect the individual’s identity and morals. The second reason is to help promote a healthy lifestyle for students. Teachers believe that by engaging students in drug education programs, it can help to benefit well-being of the students so that healthy lifestyles are reached to the fullest potentials. Lastly, teachers have found it to be important because teachers can act as a partner with parents, guardians, and other members of the community, in order to ensure that students are being provided with accurate and developmentally appropriate drug education. The school can provide knowledge to students in an area that is sometimes difficult for parents, guardians, and the community to talk about.
The second step towards the implementation of drug education is for teachers to look at the support that will be given towards the teaching. Support systems that should be considered are whether or not the school will help with the implementation, if other teachers will support it, and how parents and the community will feel towards the program.

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