{"id":4341,"date":"2025-01-21T14:58:58","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T03:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/the-deep-impact-of-youth-substance-use-the-imperative-and-urgent-need-for-prevention-a-dive-into-human-harms-beyond-the-stats-white-paper\/"},"modified":"2025-01-21T14:58:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T03:58:58","slug":"the-deep-impact-of-youth-substance-use-the-imperative-and-urgent-need-for-prevention-a-dive-into-human-harms-beyond-the-stats-white-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/the-deep-impact-of-youth-substance-use-the-imperative-and-urgent-need-for-prevention-a-dive-into-human-harms-beyond-the-stats-white-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"The Deep Impact of Youth Substance Use The Imperative and Urgent Need for Prevention: A Dive into Human Harms Beyond the \u2018Stats\u2019 (White Paper)"},"content":{"rendered":"

While policy makers debate the finer points of harm reduction versus prevention, and schools struggle to squeeze in a single hour of drug education between standardised tests, real kids are making real decisions about substance use with potentially lifelong consequences. The statistics paint a picture that should make us all uncomfortable: nearly two-thirds of 18-year-olds have tried alcohol, almost half have used marijuana, and a concerning number think It continues to both fascinate and disturb this team to note the pro-drug lobby\u2019s ability to hijack that successful 1980\u2019s JUST SAY NO campaign<\/a> <\/strong>and malign it to the point where it is now a mocking meme. This new one-liner is supposed to make anyone who sets a solid health, safety and well-being boundary in the refusal to engage with psychotropic toxins \u2013 who exercises this most proactive of protective factors \u2013\u2013 as somehow \u2018stupid\u2019.<\/p>\n

However, what is stupid is allowing this pro-drug and resiliency undermining narrative to go unchecked, especially when we are urged, no, demanded to say NO to other psycho-social harms \u2013 We \u2018must\u2019 say NO to violence against woman, or NO to drug\/drink driving and NO to Bullying or Crime etc\u2026 but NO to drug use, which is almost invariably involved in making the above issues worse, is mocked!<\/p>\n

This short \u2018heads up\u2019 should jolt even the most brain-washed reader into understanding this \u2018you can\u2019t say no\u2019 to drugs meme is an integral strategy in the war for drugs<\/em><\/strong> now being waged on our most vulnerable of citizens.<\/p>\n

What it is time for, is an honest, evidence-based examination of what’s actually happening to our kids’ brains, bodies, and futures when they use substances during these critical developmental years. More importantly, it’s time to ask some uncomfortable questions about why our prevention efforts look more like a game of whack-amole than a coherent strategy.<\/p>\n

Click here for White Paper<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While policy makers debate the finer points of harm reduction versus prevention, and schools struggle to squeeze in a single hour of drug education between standardised tests, real kids are making real decisions about substance use with potentially lifelong consequences. The statistics paint a picture that should make us all uncomfortable: nearly two-thirds of 18-year-olds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-zone-curriculum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}