"...The time has come to stop the sale of slavery to the young..." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Often times, we look at celebrities and believe that their lives are easy; at least easier than our own lives. When we see celebrities who publicly suffer with some type of addiction, those living outside of the “Hollywood bubble”, are far from sympathetic; “Look at them with all their money; Let their money buy them out of their problems.” We tend to chime in with little remorse while believing that those with fame are somehow more morally corrupt than most.
Drug and substance abuse is a deadly and devastating problem that reaches communities of all types. Common threads of addiction bind together the class of the rich and poor, while strong holding racial and ethnic groups throughout the world. Ethnicity and class abound, it would empower us to reach deep within our souls and observe the commonalities and reasons behind various groups’ choices in undertaking substance and drug abuse.
In order to prevent a problem from occurring, we need to first identify the factors that increase the risk of the problems developing and find ways to reduce those risks. There are 4 major risk factors which play a significant role in the onset of substance abuse, drug traffic, and crimes related to drugs.
1. Community Risk Factors These factors include the availability of drugs; laws and norms favoring drug usage; advertisements displaying tobacco and alcohol; community tolerance; and economic deprivation.
2. Family Risk Factors These factors include lack of skills in dealing with family history of problem behavior; family management of problems; family conflict; and parental attitudes about drugs.
3. School Risk Factors These factors are profound indicators to whether the youth in the community are engaging in high risk behaviors. School risk behaviors include early academic failure; lack of school commitment; and early persistent anti-social behavior.
4. Individual/Peer Risk Factors These set of factors are as evident in adults as they are in children or adolescents. These risk factors are the epitome of “peer pressure” and include alienation; friends engaging in problem behavior; early initiation of problem behavior; and constitutional factors (lack of impulse control).
It didn’t start with Lindsay Lohan, but it can end with us. Through education and determination we can teach people how to become involved with programs dedicated to reducing the usage of drug and substance abuse. There are several offline and online internet correspondence courses teaching techniques that one can use in adopting a community in order to “take back” their neighborhoods from the influences of drug and substance abuse, while gaining community support. For those who feel powerless---Get Involved! I guarantee that getting involved in community coalitions will get people moving and motivated while giving one a sense of purpose and personal empowerment.
To learn more about how an individual can become involved in community preventive factors for the fight against drug and substance abuse visit: http://universalclass.com/i/crn/14531.htm .
Roslyn J. Randle is co-founder for Blue Lotus Living and a Research and Instructor’s assistant for the online course, Make a Difference: Create a Substance Abuse Prevention Program located at http://universalclass.com/i/crn/14531.htm, an online course taught by head instructor Carmellita Brown.
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