Drug prevention is a set of measures to prevent or reduce the use of harmful legal and illegal drugs. By drug prevention is also meant measures to prevent and reduce harm to health from drug use.
What is drug prevention?
Drug prevention makes an attempt to prevent people who are already addicted to drugs from using drugs, either completely or partially, and to prevent people who are not addicted from using drugs. Drug prevention makes an attempt to stop people already dependent on drugs from using drugs, in whole or in part, and to stop non-dependent people from using drugs. Drug prevention deals not only with illicit drugs, which it nevertheless counters in addicted patients without threatening legal consequences, but also with legal drugs that are harmful to health. The first contact with drug prevention is usually with young people at school, as the risk of abusing legal and illegal drugs is high in adolescence. The work of drug prevention is divided into a socio-educational and a medical area, since the aim is not only to prevent or mitigate medical consequences, but also to keep young people away from the drug-related milieu of society. Adult drug prevention is concerned with the spread of harmful consequences of drugs as well as the targeted treatment of drug patients who are already addicted. It is already considered a success if illegal and legal drug consumption can be reduced. In the case of illicit drugs, medical substitutes are sometimes even offered that are not cut and are therefore sometimes life-threatening. The ideal state in drug prevention, however, is complete freedom from drugs.
Function, effect and goals
The work of drug prevention begins in childhood and adolescence with educational work and ends in the adult spectrum. Because it exists as a combination of medical and socio-educational work, the disciplines complement each other. Drug prevention in the socio-educational sense applies large-scale anti-drug campaigns to the general population, addressing the different types of drugs and providing tools that drug users can use to help themselves. Alcohol or nicotine diaries help people visualize their own legal use and determine if they already need help. These avenues work well because of their anonymity, as addiction to legal drugs in particular is not readily admitted. Programs and therapy places for drug withdrawal especially from illegal drugs are also offered to help more severe cases. Medical drug prevention educates people about the health consequences of drug use and tries to deter patients from using drugs altogether. The goal of drug prevention is to keep people away from drug use who have not yet started. Ideally, people who are already using drugs should be persuaded to stop using drugs altogether, either on their own or through withdrawal. In the case of legal drugs such as alcohol and cigarettes, this is often no longer possible at all in the case of mild drug dependence, so the reduction of consumption is set as an alternative goal. However, the reduction must take place to such an extent that the patient’s adjusted consumption no longer endangers his own health and that of other people, or only to a very minor extent. Another area of drug prevention is responding to new drugs, most of which are very dangerous or life-threatening, and preventing the spread of negative trends such as coma drinking among young people.
Risks and dangers
Drug prevention among adolescents and adults who are only involved with legal drugs is usually still very harmless. Often, addictions to these drugs are not so pronounced that those affected tend to attack drug prevention personnel or harm themselves, even if they are already damaging their health. The peculiarity of drug prevention of legal drugs is that while these drugs are socially accepted, possible addiction is not. Those affected like to play them down and perceive their use as normal, which is difficult to dissuade them from. They feel inconvenienced by the work of drug prevention and may well react negatively.In the case of mild alcohol dependence, for example, those affected often do not even let themselves be pointed out by family members and friends, who are most likely to recognize a problem. In these circles, more anonymous campaigns with concrete tools sometimes have a greater impact than direct communication. However, drug prevention offers help not only to those directly affected, but also to relatives and friends. Drug prevention is far more difficult in the area of highly dependent patients or illicit drugs. Parents, teachers or friends can no longer be called upon here to help themselves or others, since these drugs are in the illegal area and may be associated with criminal offenses. Professional drug prevention staff also have to deal with individual cases in most cases due to the seriousness of the damage to health. This means they must build trust with their patient and help them engage in and persevere through drug prevention not only from a medical perspective, but also provide socio-educational counseling. Cases of addiction to illicit drugs usually have a long “drug career” behind them, which is also accompanied by the decline of social life. Drug prevention cannot be carried out in this area without leaving the affected person in an environment from treatment in which he or she will not relapse. At the latest with regard to illegal drugs, campaigns with help for self-help are no longer sufficient for drug prevention; rather, close cooperation between medical and socio-educational specialists in a rehab facility is necessary.
