More often we focus on adults in recovery from substance use disorders and forget that there is a category of users who are minors. These may not have crossed over to the abuse stage but they are in school and are actively using alcohol or other substances.
There is a common fallacy that adolescents who experiment with drugs and alcohol are characteristically “bad kids”. Numerous parents assume that teenagers experiment because they are disobedient and want to lash out.
In homes, just as in schools, children who are found with illicit substances normally receive prompt punishment. This might seem like common sense, but do punitive reprimands like shaming at home or suspension from school keep young people from using substances? Does it help them address the apprehension, sorrow, or social isolation that might be driving their drug use? The answer is no.
Ordinarily, in a school set-up the reflex is to send them home or in some extreme cases set them up with the authorities where the children end up more destabilised than they were. Research has shown that a positive relationship with the school system, which creates a greater sense of community, attachment and performance, is associated with reduced potential for drug use among learners.
In August 2020 the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada) launched a Teachers’ Guide to Alcohol and Drug Use Prevention. This was a result of a plethora of research findings locally revealing that teachers were ill-equipped to handle incidences of alcohol and drug use in schools.
The findings have also revealed that teachers ordinarily resort to methods that are not linked to positive outcomes such as the use of unqualified people to sensitise students on alcohol and drug use. When inviting motivational speakers, you must ensure their competence and vet their content to ensure it is aligned with best practices.
Substances that teens may use include those that are legal for adults, such as alcohol or tobacco, or even medicines prescribed to other people, such as opioids. Sometimes they may order substances online that promise to help in sports competition or promote weight loss. In some other instances, products common in homes and that have certain chemicals can be inhaled for intoxication.
In the school setting teachers must ensure that they have a strong bond with learners, which is characterised by listening with empathy and care. Teachers are an important source of information for learners who have a lot of questions about alcohol and drug use.
They can help by correcting common misperceptions that young people have about alcohol and other drugs. One of the most widely held misperceptions is the idea that it is common or normal to use drugs, when in fact the vast majority of young people have never tried a substance of abuse.
Sometimes parents or even school administrators call authorities on their children who are using drugs. This is so especially when they exhibit other delinquent behaviours such as violence, theft and damage to property, among others.
But calling the police on a minor is a very serious misstep that is hard to take back once you have made the call. It involves introducing the child into the criminal justice system and opening a criminal record for them, something that will follow them for the rest of their life.
Disciplinary approaches such as suspension from school are not entirely effective; they are associated with harm, such as worse academic performance and more involvement in rebellious activities. They can also increase drug use and the risk of overdose.
The time is ripe for the country to embrace a principle referred to as ‘restorative justice’ where the people involved in a problematic occurrence gather to talk about and together process what happened, and figure out how to move forward.
In the case of children using drugs, it could involve a circle in which staff and students together define the harm that occurred and design a remedy that is good for the student.