Drug abuse prevention among students in Estonia

Abstract

This paper discusses the problem of drug abuse prevention among students in Estonia. According to international research, drug use rate among 15–16-year-old Estonians is higher, than in many other European Union countries, which supports the urgency of finding effective ways to prevent drug abuse among students. Over the past decades, much research has been devoted to finding ways to reduce or delay the possible use of psychoactive substances by young people. Previously suggested prevention programs stressed the importance of informing students about drugs, drug use and addiction. Intimidation tactics were used in the descriptions of psychoactive substances, their effects and methods of use, and their prices. However, evaluation of such programs has shown that access to information or intimidation do not reduce the rate of psychoactive substance use among students. Current strategies for drug dependence prevention, whose effectiveness has been scientifically proved, are aimed at reducing the risk factors for drug addiction or at increasing the protective factors that reduce susceptibility to the disease. Effective preventive actions include developing social skills in students and their family members, creating a positive environment in educational institutions, promoting anti-drug attitudes and a healthy lifestyle in society in general. The article provides a brief description of drug prevention programs implemented in Estonian educational institutions and establishes the importance of interdisciplinary interaction in achieving the greatest effect of preventive work. However, there are a number of factors that reduce the effectiveness of preventive programs, i.e. weak interdepartmental relations that impede interdepartmental cooperation, a shortage of specialists with professional skills in the area of drug prevention, insufficient level of research on implementing foreign preventive programs and their effectiveness in the Estonian education system. The author emphasizes the relevance of the tasks associated with assessing the effectiveness of current preventive programs as well as advanced training of doctors, teachers, psychologists and social workers in the field of drug prevention.