Drug and Alcohol Prevention Strategies to Protect Children

Drugs and alcohol are all around us every day, from people smoking cigarettes on the street to pictures of celebrities partying with a bottle of liquor in their hand. When these behaviors go unchallenged, they can seem acceptable to children, which is why it’s important to start teaching kids about the dangers of these addictive substances from a young age. Children should be able to recognize what these things are, what their effects can be, and why they’re dangerous. It’s also crucial to teach kids that even infrequent use of drugs or alcohol can lead to serious consequences. Teaching kids about why they should avoid drugs and alcohol and equipping them with strategies to do so can help to keep them safe and healthy, both now and in the future.

Types of Drugs

Cigarettes

Smoking cigarettes was once quite common and even viewed as glamorous, but now, we understand that cigarettes are highly addictive and can cause serious damage to your health. As smoking has become less prevalent, however, it’s been replaced by vaping, which still involves inhaling addictive nicotine and other dangerous chemicals. Both smoking and vaping can cause lung disease.

• Kids and Smoking: The American Lung Association outlines some strategies for keeping kids from smoking or vaping.
• Youth at Risk of Lifelong Nicotine Addiction: The rise of vaping has contributed to an increase in nicotine use among young people.
• What to Know About Kids and Smoking: Learn about the dangers of smoking to a child’s heath and find tips for how to talk to your kids about smoking.
• Quick Facts on the Risks of E-Cigarettes for Kids, Teens, and Young Adults: Vaping is dangerous at any age, but kids are particularly vulnerable to the negative health effects of vaping.

Marijuana

As more states decriminalize marijuana, it becomes easier to find, but that doesn’t make it safe. Marijuana is most often smoked, which is damaging to the lungs. It can also be consumed in edible products or vaped. Using marijuana when you’re young can impair brain development, giving you memory and learning issues.

• Talking With Your Child About Marijuana: Learn how to keep your kids safe from this drug with help from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
• Marijuana and Teens: Teen marijuana use is on the rise, but keeping open lines of communication can keep your child from becoming part of this statistic.
• Is Marijuana Harmful for Children and Teens? Just because many states are legalizing marijuana does not make it safe to use.
• Risks and Long-Term Effects of Marijuana Use: Using marijuana as a child or teen can cause damage that lasts a lifetime.

Alcohol

Alcohol is legal for adults ages 21 and older, and it’s easy to find in stores, which may make it seem safe. However, drinking alcohol impairs your judgment, which can get you into a lot of dangerous situations, some of which can be deadly. Alcohol can also be addictive. Drinking too much at once can cause alcohol poisoning, and drinking a lot over time can cause liver damage.

• Parenting to Prevent Childhood Alcohol Use: Parents can have a significant influence on whether or not their child uses alcohol.
• Any Amount of Alcohol Is Risky for Kids: Learn more about how alcohol can damage a child’s health, even in small amounts.
• Alcohol: A Dangerous Poison for Children: When children consume alcohol, even in the form of something seemingly harmless like mouthwash, the effects can be fatal.
• Does a Holiday Buzz Impact Your Kids? Drinking alcohol around children can give them the impression that it’s OK for them to do, too.

Cocaine

Cocaine can produce a powerful feeling of euphoria, but that’s part of what makes it highly addictive. Deadly overdoses are all too common. Using this drug also raises your heart rate, which can lead to a higher risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes.

• Understanding Cocaine and Crack: Read more about the forms cocaine can take and its effects.
• Talking With Your Kids About Cocaine and Crack: Communication is key to making sure that kids are healthy and safe.
• Cocaine Fact Sheet: Arm yourself with the facts about cocaine, from what it’s made from to what it can do to the human body.
• Cocaine: What it Is and How it’s Used: Different forms of cocaine can be snorted, smoked, or injected.

Heroin

Heroin is a strong opioid drug that’s usually injected. The potency of heroin can vary significantly, which contributes to the high number of overdoses caused by this drug. Heroin can also cause fatal respiratory depression, and sharing needles while injecting the drug can spread numerous illnesses.

• Heroin and How it’s Used: Learn about this highly addictive drug and its effects.
• History of Heroin: Heroin was developed for medical purposes, but it soon became apparent that its negative effects were too great.
• Facts About Heroin: When a person becomes dependent on heroin, the drug becomes their priority above everything else in their life.
• What Is Heroin? This illegal opioid drug comes with a high risk of overdose.

Opioids

Not all opioids are illegal, like heroin, but all of them are highly addictive and can be very dangerous. Prescription opioids like oxycodone and fentanyl are used as pain relievers, but misuse of these drugs is far too common. Overdoses can depress your breathing and heart rate to the point of death.

• Protect Your Kids From Prescription Drug Use: It’s crucial to teach children that prescription drugs are only safe when they’re taken according to their doctor’s instructions.
• Young Children Are Increasingly Victims of Opioid Epidemic: The number of opioid overdose deaths is on the rise in children.
• National Trends in Pediatric Deaths From Prescription and Illicit Opioids: This academic paper examines the steep increase in opioid deaths among children.
• Opioids for Acute Pain in Kids: Four Things to Know: While opioids might be prescribed for kids occasionally, they’re often not necessary.

Meth

Meth, short for methamphetamine, is a stimulant drug often found as a crystal or powder. Using meth causes dental decay, skin sores, hallucinations, paranoia, and cardiovascular issues. In addition, a fair amount of the meth supply is made in meth labs at people’s homes, and making meth is a highly dangerous process involving volatile chemicals that can cause a variety of health risks as well as a risk of explosions and fires.

• The Effects of Methamphetamine on Children: Just being exposed to meth by being around people who use the drug can be dangerous for children.
• Methamphetamine: Learn more about what meth is and what it can do to someone who uses it.
• What Is Methamphetamine? Using meth comes with a host of health hazards.
• Facts You Should Know About Meth: Meth users experience a high that makes them feel euphoric and powerful, followed by a low that can be accompanied by delusions, paranoia, or obsessive thoughts.

How Drugs Harm the Body

The negative health effects of drugs can vary depending on the specific drug, ranging from a fast heartbeat to chronic illnesses like lung disease or cancer to death. The common factor that most of them have in common is that they’re addictive; over time, they can actually rewire the brain’s reward systems, making it harder to feel pleasure without using more of the drug.

• How Drugs Affect Your Looks and Your Body: Drugs can damage every part of you, from your skin to your kidneys.
• What Are the Effects of Drug Misuse? Using drugs can cause both physical and mental harm.

Saying No to Drugs

People of any age can find themselves swayed by peer pressure, doing things that they might not have chosen to do on their own in order to fit in with a group. However, the power of peer pressure is stronger for children and teenagers, who are still trying to find where they fit in and form an identity that they feel comfortable with. That makes it harder for kids to say no when a peer offers them drugs or alcohol. It’s essential for parents and teachers to help children and teens form strategies for saying no and build the confidence needed to use them.

• How to Say No to Drugs and Alcohol: These strategies can help to fend off pressure to try addictive substances.
• Saying No to Alcohol and Drugs: If all else fails, simply walking away can be an effective response to peer pressure.

Furthering Understanding of Drugs and Alcohol

It’s commonly said that knowledge is power, and that’s very true when it comes to the problem of drug and alcohol use and abuse. Forming effective strategies to keep children safe from these dangerous substances starts with understanding the problem, including the substances themselves as well as societal factors at play. Greater awareness and education can help adults to create supportive and healthy environments for children and recognize when a child is at risk and needs help developing healthier coping mechanisms.

• Help Your Teen Avoid Drugs: Find out more about ways to help your teen resist using drugs.
• Prevention Tips for Every Age: Parents should maintain an open dialog with their kids about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.