Description of the Problem
The abuse of drugs by college students in our community is very high. Substance abuse is explained as the misuse of drugs causing significant health challenges to the abuser. After the misuse of the drug, the normal functioning of the abuser’s body stops. Some of the drugs that are greatly abused by the youth in college include marijuana and alcohol. There is also the rise of abuse of cocaine among our college youth.
The problem with this misuse of the drugs is the resultant health and socio-economic challenges that it causes for the victims and their families. It has to be understood that the abuse of drugs and alcohol normally leads to addiction. Increased abuse of drugs and alcohol leads to poor academic performance among the youth and socio-economic losses to the society. Most of these youths do not earn any salary hence depend on the stipends given to them by their guardians for the purchase of the drugs as well as alcohol. They lose concentration to their studies and some end up dropping out of colleges. Moreover, it is the same drug abuse and use of alcohol that leads to increased cases of criminal activities in our community. Therefore, a solution has to be found for this challenges caused by the abuse of drugs and use of alcohol by the college youths in our community.
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The Solution
In attempting to get the lasting solution for this problem in our community, the measures for reducing the cases of addiction to drug abuse and use of alcohol had to be pursued. The best strategy applied in finding the solution to this problem is the prevention of the practice among the youths. The approach used is establishing research-based programs that can prevent the addiction to drug abuse and use of alcohol among the youths. Research-based implies that the programs selected for prevention of the vice among the youths are designed based on empirical evidence that they lead to positive outcomes. With this strategy of research-based prevention programs, the aim is to enhance the protective factors and eliminate the present risk elements for drug abuse as well as the use of alcohol. These prevention programs are developed specifically for the youths and customized for a college setting. The youths targeted in these programs are those who have already started to abuse drugs and use alcohol.
The prevention programs are designed to help the teachers and the care professionals within the colleges to change the perceptions of the youths regarding the risks of drug abuse and alcohol use. Preventing the use of the alcohol and abuse of drugs is the best strategy because it helps avoid the costs of curing the repercussions of the practice.
Another solution is education to create awareness of the harsh consequences of drug abuse and use of alcohol and dissuade the youths from using them. While carrying out the education of the youths, the strategy is to focus on using facts about the vice, but not to concentrate on scare-tactics. Moreover, this education is focused on the adolescent youths because it is at this stage of life that young people start making independent decisions and choices about the kind of lifestyle they want to lead. By education them on this vice during adolescence stage, they can make informed choices about their future lifestyle. Attention is laid upon the use of figures and pictorials to demonstrate some of the actual outcomes of addiction to this vice and ensure the youths understand the consequences of drug abuse and use of alcohol.
