What Kind of Drug Education Is Your Child Getting at School?
When people hear the term “drug education”, they assume negative connotations. However, that is a misconception. Drug education isn’t an attempt to convince your child to do drugs, it’s the exact opposite. Drug education is not only a necessity for your child’s health and future but in most cases, drug education isn’t being taught to our children at a young enough age. And in a lot of cases, children aren’t getting any sort of drug education at school.
Most parents think it won’t be their kid
Parents tend to assume the best of their children and assume they would never dabble in drugs. And yes, parents do know their children better than a random observer would. However, parents are often willing to overlook the negative things and actions when it comes to their children. Well-meaning parents all too often conveniently don’t notice the signs of drug use, simply because they don’t want to believe that it’s a possibility. And even if your child has never used illegal substances, it’s very possible that they know someone that has.
“Say no to drugs” isn’t enough
Drug education is important for a lot of reasons. If your child is ever confronted with the decision to do drugs or is ever interested in experimenting, they need to have the education necessary to make a good decision. Education is the key to prevention. Without knowledge, your child doesn’t have the tools necessary to make a decision in that sort of situation and may make a rash decision that they won’t be happy with.
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Without education, horrible mistakes can be made
Consider synthetic drugs. Many synthetic drugs are much stronger than their traditional counterparts. If your children aren’t getting the education to know what synthetic drugs are and how much damage they can cause, they won’t have any idea what they’re getting into if they are presented with them. There have been instances of death when a teenager is offered synthetic drugs and, thinking they are something else, such as LSD, take a dose that is much too large. Education can prevent this.
They can handle the information
In middle school and high school, your child’s brain is still developing. This is the best time for them to get the drug education that they need. They need to be able to assess the risk and learn to make decisions for themselves when they are presented with the opportunity to do drugs. Your children are smart. They are able to handle the information. If we aren’t communicating with our kids and giving them that information, someone else is going to be giving them information.
With nothing to compare it to, they’ll believe the other information they are given. Don’t give them the chance to be confused, and give them the information that they need from the beginning. This isn’t to say that if you don’t make sure your child is getting a proper drug education that they are going to be out on the streets in search of cocaine. It just means that you would never want that sort of situation for your child, and educating your child is the best means of prevention.
Educate, instead of saying “don’t use”
With a lot of taboo subjects, people tend to opt for a blanket statement, disregarding any pertinent information that would be useful for decision making. If we don’t educate our children, how are they supposed to know anything? Ignorance is absolutely not bliss, and especially not in a situation like this. Ignorance and education could be a life or death difference.
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Educate about over-use of legal substances
Teaching our children about illegal drugs is incredibly important. What’s equally as important, is teaching them about the dangers of things that are legal. Alcohol, tobacco, and prescription medication/opioids are all things we should be talking to our children about. Again, without education, youth don’t have any way to create well-meaning decisions about something. If you know nothing about something you nothing about how to protect yourself from it. Teach your children about the dangers of overuse of substances that are legal, as well as the dangers of using illegal substances.
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~ This article was written by Aurora McCausland ~
Aurora is a 20-something with big hair, a love for Nutella. New Mexican raised, living in Utah. Twitter addict. English and Journalism Major at U.V. Utah, with a minor in French. She’s been writing since before she can remember and a model …
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