Steep_Factors

Setting the scene The starting point for analyzing drug prohibition is the observation that drugs continue to be supplied and demanded in bettws is still quite high despite prohibition. This point might seem obvious, but it bears repeating because so many failed policies, statements by politicians, and even scientific analyses assume that what happens under a law is whatever that law directs. Yet abundant evidence from prohibitions of drugs, alcohol, gambling, prostitution, and other commodities demonstrates that a sizeable fraction of the population continues to supply and demand commodities that are prohibited. Thus, drug prohibition creates a black market in drugs rather than eliminating drugs. This explains many of the risk and potential harm typically attributed to drug use are instead due to drug prohibition. This is not to deny that drugs can have powerful effects on the user, nor to deny that drugs differ in some respects from other commodities. But a wide range of outcomes typically thought to result from drug use is far more accurately attributed to the current legal treatment of drugs. Socio-environmental factors in Bettws The level of substance misuse amongst an adolescent’s peers has been linked to the likelihood of that young person moving on to more dangerous substances; the relationship between young people and their parents is also important. Turbulent households, a weak attachment to their parents, a lack of warmth from parents, inconsistent discipline, and one parent families have all be related to a higher probability of misusing substances; The consequences of problematic substance use predict the impact of the interventions on the chance of a young person becoming a problematic substance user and the cost of problematic substance use to society. Problematic substance use is associated with a range of consequences that infer costs to society. Culyer et al (2002), distinguish between the direct and indirect costs of problematic substance misuse. Direct costs: costs for users: health, alienation, dependency, poverty; and reactive costs: health care, social care, social security, CJS. Indirect costs: costs for users: work / productivity, education, driving, crime. Costs for wider society: property crime, crime against the person, communicable disease, forced lifestyle changes, perceived insecurity. Costs for family and carers: financial, time spent caring, communicable diseases, anxiety and stress, poor parenting, lifestyle transmission; and in some cases untimely death. Psychological factors: Those with low self esteem are more predisposed to abusing substances; young people with a ‘difficult’ temperament (e.g. those with short spans of attention, withdrawn, easily distracted) have a higher chance of misusing substances as they mature. Similarly, those with less executive cognitive functioning are at risk; Sensation-seekers and risk-takers tend to misuse substances more than their peers. Children performing poorly at school, who are frequently absent or have dropped out of school, are at risk of misusing substances; and Traumatic events make a young person more likely to misuse substances. For instance, physical or sexual abuse, witnessing violence, the arrest or incarceration of parents, failing at school, parental unemployment and serious family illness has all been related to an increased chance of substance misuse."Low self-esteem is kind of the spark plug for self-destructive behaviours, and drug use is one of these," Taylor said. "It's a fundamental need to have a good sense of self. Without it, people may become pathologically unhappy with themselves, and that can lead to some very serious problems." Children with very low self-esteem, what the researchers termed "self-derogation," were 1.6 times more likely to meet the criteria for drug dependence nine years later than other children. The importance of identifying children with low self-esteem for prevention and early intervention efforts before they reach ages that are associated with initial experimentation with drugs cannot be overstated. Understanding why some youth experience chronic difficulties in their peer relationships is critically important for learning how to prevent some of the negative consequences associated with isolation, rejection, and victimization by peers Britain has the highest level of drug use in Europe, and the second highest number of drug-related deaths. While more abusers are being treated than ever before, the programs are apparently as ineffective as government education schemes, whose effect has been negligible. Therefore, the socio economic problems give shape and in lots of ways dictate the structure of the curriculum. To highlight this further and emerging problem that will need addressing in bettws is the number of young people engaging in the filming of soft/hard porn movies via the medium of the mobile phone. The curriculum for dealing with this as already began with the design of workshops dealing with self esteem. Our sexualised culture is bombarding children with messages about gender roles and sex. The Sex Education Forum has found that half of children using the internet are exposed to porn and that almost a third of children receive unwanted sexual comments via email, chat, instant message or text, suggesting a worrying lack of information about positive relationships. Is porn stepping in to fill the gaps in sex education' Catherine Harper is the founder of Scottish Women Against Pornography and worked for Brooke Advisory for 11 years. "We need a comprehensive sex education programme," she says. "Access to technology has changed. Mobile porn has replaced internet porn, because you can watch it covertly. The best tool you can give young people is autonomy and knowledge, so they can make informed choices and have positive relationships, including the confidence to say no. If parents saw what was filling the gap, it would destroy them." So for the team at bettws the writing is on the wall. The curriculum is not set in stone a dictat to the students. I use the metaphor of a coat rack where the support structure is supplied and the coats are the ideas and energy that the student brings Curriculum Development, Training and information operate in real time by which I mean the drug intelligence that my teams collect during their working days and nights are entered onto a small database no names so you have to take a good hard look at what you want to achieve' Do you have the recourses and energy to do this' Does it fit in with Welsh Assembly Government strategies on drugs' Then the target group of young people, consultation with them is critical for the intelligence gathered from dictates the content but not the method of the lesson delivery. This is down to me. This is developed after and in depth group profile of each group. Why' Each group is different. Different peer groups, hence different peer groups’ loyalties and pressures, some of the groups have initiation rites, taboos (particularity in the area of racism). The curriculum is defined by the problem to be addressed ’. The curriculum is bespoke, designed to run a short period months or until the end is achieved or not. Then it is ended and a new curriculum developed, it is constantly evolving just like the problems is designed to tackle just like the groups as we say opposite sides of the same coin. This is what I call real time learning based upon what the students want to know. John Dewey points out ‘I believe that the only true education comes through the stimulation of the child's powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself.’ We never say ‘don’t do drugs’ nor have we ever prescribed to the ‘say no to drugs campaign’ these campaigns resort to veiled threats and platitudes not on education and enlightenment. Nearly all government campaigns tell blatant lies about drug use. In doing so they completely miss the target group who use drugs and whose experience are nearly always pleasurable. The curriculum that has been developed is always based upon the accepted truth about street drugs and that is ‘you don’t know where it’s come from (unless you make or grow it yourself) you don’t what’s in it (unless you make or grow it yourself). The students are exposed to sources that expand their understanding of the drug/s they abuse. Giving them a related and vested interest in discovering more about their drug of choice, to much information is never a bad option when learning about drugs, when most information is gleaned from peers or pushers. Tyler describes learning as taking place through the action of the student. “It is what he does that he learns, not what the teacher does” Tyler p36. Put another way the curriculum is a malleable process it is ‘not a physical thing, but rather the interaction of teachers, student and knowledge’, (ET08 Product and Process models handout) One of the problems I have to overcome is the area of how I use language. Urban street drug terms there are estimated to be over 7,000 words relating to drug slang, street terms, street language, drug words, and street drug slang. It is the nature of slang that it is either used to replace taboo phrases or to playfully enhance them, it is also wise to remember that the students often use racist and sexist language in their everyday vocabulary so PC goes out the window causing some to be easily offended when working with theses young people. Growing up is stressful and challenging in the best of times. For those young people abusing drugs, the stresses are much greater. Their transition to adulthood is often made more difficult by the absence of the usual role models and the breakdown of the social and cultural system in which they live. In many ways the traditional mould which prepared young people for adult life, is weakened, broken or has not adapted to the changing world. Therefore, when growing out of childhood, young people do not always have efficient and effective support as they move towards adult roles. Enter into this drugs and the individual and society could have problems. Although I have said much about the factors that influence the methods I employ to deliver the curriculum I need Tyler,R.W. (1949) Basic principles of curriculum and instruction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (ET08 Product and Process models handout) PGCE 2007