- What are the negative effects of cannabis use in adolescence?
- Is there a level of cannabis consumption that is considered safe?
- At what point is cannabis use considered to be risky?
- Why has cannabis use become so widespread among young people?
- Does consuming alcohol lead to consuming more cannabis?
- Are there protective and preventative factors against cannabis use that depend on the family?
- If we suspect our son or daughter is smoking marijuana, how can we address the issue at home and what advice can we give them?
- What signs might indicate that our son or daughter has a problem with cannabis?
- Where can I get urine tests to find out if there has been cannabis use?
- Cannabis can be found in different products; are these safer than smoking?
- What can we do to prevent cannabis use in schools?
- What are the risks of cannabis use for mental health, both for occasional and continuous use?
- What is the relationship between smoking marijuana and the onset of psychosis?
- Are there any brief interventions we can do with 15-year-old adolescents transitioning from pediatrics to primary care medicine, to detect substance use and provide an initial approach?
- What materials and techniques can I use to address this topic as a primary care professional?
- How do you explain to a teenager with ADHD that they may be more prone to substance abuse than other people without ADHD?
- Is an ADHD diagnosis associated with early onset of substance use?
What can we do to prevent cannabis use in schools?
The school environment is an ideal setting for implementing prevention strategies, as it is one of the key places for the development of personal skills and competencies.
Schools are a key ally in drug abuse prevention. Many schools are implementing protocols for detecting and addressing drug use. These protocols facilitate the identification of risky behaviors and drug-related situations, creating standardized procedures for coordination, communication, action, and joint referral among the various agencies and services involved. They also provide guidelines and educational resources for teachers and families.
Schools provide a suitable setting for implementing prevention programs:
- It allows access to a large number of young people in the maturation process phase in which the intervention of the adult has a great impact.
- The compulsory nature of schooling until the age of 16 implies that all people must go through it during the most important period of personality formation.
- It is an ideal space to detect potential risk factors and situations of vulnerability.
- Teachers, as preventive agents due to their close relationship with students and their educational role, can establish positive emotional bonds by transmitting values such as respect, equality, and solidarity.
There is evidence that universal prevention programs in schools, based on promoting the personal and social skills of adolescents, achieve positive results if they involve teachers and use interactive activities that promote responsibility, autonomy, decision-making, and awareness of the consequences of substance use and abuse.
Henka, a state program for the prevention and promotion of emotional well-being in adolescence
These interventions should be ongoing, rather than isolated, reactive actions. The teaching staff must have the necessary training, materials, and resources to do so.
There must be communication channels with family prevention to generate a unified and coherent prevention model.
Protective factors in the school environment
- Positive relationships with teachers and the school.
- Clear norms and rules of conduct.
- Student participation in school tasks and activities.
- Motivation and reinforcement of students in the culture of effort.
- Family relationship and school monitoring.
In the latest ESTUDES 2021 Survey, students considered that of the measures that could be implemented to alleviate the drug problem, the most effective would be education in the school environment.