{"id":16795,"date":"2023-11-14T19:07:37","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T19:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=16795"},"modified":"2024-01-16T20:05:41","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T20:05:41","slug":"prevention-getting-ahead-of-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2023\/11\/prevention-getting-ahead-of-the-game\/","title":{"rendered":"PREVENTION \u2013 GETTING AHEAD OF THE GAME"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\"><em>This article is distilled from a paper given at the Recovery Plus conference in London on 26<sup>th<\/sup> June 2018 by Peter Stoker, Director of the National Drug Prevention Alliance.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\"><em>References available on request.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"187\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-16796\" src=\"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Peter-329x480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"329\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Peter-329x480.jpg 329w, https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Peter.jpg 334w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 329px) 100vw, 329px\" \/><\/span><\/td>\n<td width=\"381\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Prevention, the word and meaning, comes from the Latin &#8220;praevenire&#8221; which means &#8220;to come before&#8221;. In other words, to act pre-the event \u2013 not during it or after it. Any action later than pre-the event is not prevention, it is repair. And both are required.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">When it comes to funding, Prevention is the Cinderella service, and reasons why could include that Treatment has more workers with a resulting vigour; Treatment is easier to count, pleasing accountant-oriented funders; Prevention is (falsely) depicted as inhibiting Human Rights, and libertarian campaigners have always had deeper pockets that Prevention ever had.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">INTERNATIONAL HISTORY<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Early responses to the drug problem were characterised by being reactive rather than proactive, often with a legal or enforcement flavour.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">There was also a tendency to focus on transmission of knowledge, sometimes coupled with a challenging of the users\u2019 attitudes \u2013 unintended consequences could follow, for example:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">if you give knowledge to a user you may produce a knowledgeable user, and<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">if you challenge a user&#8217;s attitude you may produce a knowledgeable user with an attitude.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">In due course a more complete model was developed using the simple synonym \u2013 KAB, meaning you should address a mixture of Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviour. (And focus on encouraging positive behaviour, rather than punishment).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Libertarians spotted the educational arena as fertile ground for their campaigns; their speculative allegation that the so-called \u2018war on drugs\u2019 was failing was the launchpad for harm reduction (HR1) &#8211; this was later augmented by inclusion of human rights (HR2). I witnessed all this being promoted vigorously at the 2009 UNGASS\/CND conference in Vienna \u2013 we were emphasising \u2018Whole Health\u2019 as a goal, but throughout the proceedings there was an apparently innocuous and almost irresistible request from ACLU delegates that human rights should be included in all clauses. It wasn&#8217;t evident at this moment that they would later insist that using drugs was itself a &#8220;human right&#8221;, which therefore meant that prevention was, in effect, a breach of human rights. This activism was bankrolled by George Soros\u2019 Open Society.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">You can explore people\u2019s thinking on this every day, in the Google Alerts, but remember what H.L.Mencken had to say: \u201cFor every complex problem there is a simple solution \u2026 and it doesn\u2019t work\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Exemplary practice can be observed in several initiatives. There are too many to cover them all, but here are some indicative examples and source materials:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">DFAF \u2013 Drug Free America Foundation \u2013 <a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dfaf.org\">www.dfaf.org<\/a> &#8211; internationally active, establishing conferences in Europe and the Americas. Publishes a learned journal, and holds an enormous library.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">NFIA &#8211; National Families In Action &#8211; Atlanta USA \u2013 <a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalfamilies.org\">www.nationalfamilies.org<\/a> &#8211; countless years of detailed research and practice. Many learned papers. They have just published a very useful technical paper called \u2018The MJ File\u2019 \u2013 requires reading.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">CADCA\u00a0 &#8211; www.cadca.org &#8211; <em>Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America &#8211;<\/em> until recently under direction of Major General Arthur Dean, US Army retired. CADCA is well-resourced; in 2016 alone it trained over 8,000 youth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">A very useful publication by NIDA\/CSAP <a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.drugabuse.gov\">www.drugabuse.gov<\/a> (Center for Substance Abuse Prevention) is \u2018Preventing Drug Abuse\u2019 \u2013 a slim volume, its first edition in 1997, revised in 2003 \u2026 about due for an update, one might say!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">DARE \u2013 <a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dare.org\">www.dare.org<\/a> &#8211; \u00a0has suffered attacks in recent years but has survived, to the extent that it is signing new client organisations at the rate of about 200 a year even now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">DWI \u2013 Drug Watch International &#8211;\u00a0 <a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.drugwatch.org\">www.drugwatch.org<\/a> a long-standing forum of experts in America and abroad. Membership by invitation only.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Straight \u2013 peer-led youth rehab service, now closed. Featured in the movie \u2018Not My Kid\u2019 starring George Segal and Stockard Channing.\u00a0 Straight came in for criticism from the liberal left, and eventually closed, but not for this reason. I asked Bill Oliver, Chief Executive for many years, what caused the collapse of Straight. He told me \u201cWe were very good drug workers but lousy accountants\u201d. A salutory comment!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">SAM \u2013 Smart Approaches to Marijuana \u2013 <a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sam.org\">www.sam.org<\/a> . One of the most potent bodies in recent years, in the legalisation battle zone. Under the direction of Kevin\u00a0 Sabet, a former policy adviser in the\u00a0 US drug czar\u2019s office. Senior staffers include former Congressman Patrick Kennedy. Their approach is soundly based on scientific evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\"><em>\u00a0<\/em>And NDPA &#8211; National Drug Prevention Alliance &#8211; based in Slough, near Heathrow, and almost 30 years old. NDPA has provided support and training for parents, young people, drugs professionals and teachers. It has provided counselling and referral for users, and has done a large amount of work in the broadcast and print media,. It runs two websites \u2013 one for drugs professionals <a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.drugprevent.org.uk\">www.drugprevent.org.uk<\/a> and one \u2013 more accessible in its presentation &#8211;\u00a0 for parents \u2013 <a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pinpoints.org.uk\">www.pinpoints.org.uk<\/a> The websites include thousands of technical papers as well as other advisory publications. The websites are regularly visited internationally, several hundred thousand visits per year, and readers include our own Home Office.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">EXAMPLES OF SUCCESS<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Perhaps the earliest example was almost 40 years ago, in the late 1980s. Increased drug use sparked large numbers of parents to press academics into action, with the most memorable campaign being \u2018Just Say No\u2019 &#8211; under Ronald Regan\u2019s wife Nancy. It was ridiculed by the left, but the campaign was very much more than a slogan, included detailed trainings for parents and youth, plus media activism, and the hard evidence is that it reduced prevalence by more than 60% &#8211; 11 million fewer users. Any other health-related campaign today would kill for such a result.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Perhaps the best example of this in recent years has been around the use of tobacco. Historically tobacco was used freely everywhere. Even doctors said it was good for you \u2013 it would soothe your throat, for example. Advertising sold it vigorously. Such protests as were made, were largely ignored. And if any people suggested that smoking had made them ill, the rest of us felt that that was their own fault and nothing to do with the us \u2013 they were getting what they deserved<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Then, one day, the US Surgeon General announced that tobacco smoking by one person could give other persons cancer (through passive smoking). This was a game-changing announcement; we could no longer ignore what these drug users were doing \u2013 now it was affecting all of us. Anti-smoking articles and adverts appeared in the media; doctors advised strongly against it, schools told their pupils to avoid it, offices prohibited smoking in the premises, causing those who still were dependent on cigarettes to huddle in unpleasant external doorways, and the newly emerging Health and Safety brigade put in their six-pennorth. In due course the government reacted, producing new and influential legislation, banning smoking in many places. Before long the culture changed markedly, and in consequence so did the prevalence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">But if you want a bang up-to-date success, story you need look no further than Iceland. Comparing latest European figures with a couple of decades ago, teen drinkers have dropped from 42% to 5%, cannabis use has dropped from 17% to 7%, and tobacco smoking from 23% to 3%. The emphasis is on providing stimulating activities for youth, and on schooling parents in now to be more engaged with their families. Countries are following the Icelandic model, and research shows Risk factors and Protective Factors are pretty much the same everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">There are localised examples of how to get ahead of the game \u2013 for example, one effective program was run in New York \u2013 called \u2018Fixing Broken Windows\u2019 the approach was to keep the streets and buildings clean and tidy \u2013 it reduced drug abuse and other social aspects.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">In society as a whole, what promises the best results? In essence, the most effective\u00a0 strategy will come from <em>changing the culture. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Balanced prevention policy and strategy<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">I have yet to find a better definition what we should do than that written by a leading expert in the prevention field, based in Arizona \u2013 William Lofquist:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\"><em>&#8220;We need to get beyond the notion that prevention is stopping something happening, to a more positive approach which creates conditions which promote the well-being of people&#8221;. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Lofquist found the importance of treating youth as resources, rather than objects or recipients of project work. He also emphasised that it should engage the whole of society, not in some rigid formulaic way but in a fluid, proactive approach which is alive to changes in society and always works to stay ahead of the game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">An assembly of this co-ordinated strategy and policy might include the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"158\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Government<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Health<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Education<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Higher ed<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Youth peers<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Parents<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Religions<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Pharmacists<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Businesses<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Media<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Volunteers<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Sport<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Leisure<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Drugs services<\/span><\/td>\n<td width=\"410\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211; \u00a0specify, resource, oversee, evaluate and improve<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211; \u00a0address all health elements<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211; \u00a0focus on health promoting approaches<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211; \u00a0train teachers and youth workers in prevention<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211;\u00a0 develop and utilise their potential<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211;\u00a0 de-marginalise, train, resource, support<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211; \u00a0spiritual lead, network, interface working<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211; \u00a0more proactive, preventing, reducing harm<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211; \u00a0health promoting environments. EAPs, RDTs<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211; \u00a0educate and support editorial staff, no mixed messages<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211; \u00a0realise their potential, utilise more widely<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211;\u00a0 health promoting environments, health image<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211;\u00a0 widen education and training. Explore expansion<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">&#8211; \u00a0encourage plurality, with more emphasis on recovery<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">We can also learn much from the science of \u2018Behaviour Modification\u2019 \u00a0&#8211; as practised by, inter all, Professor Brian Sheldon of the Royal Holloway University.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Constructive selfishness \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">The tobacco example above describes what I mean by this expression. We should not shrink from recognising that selfishness is a powerful driving force across society. And since it is a powerful driving force, we should seek to drive it to our advantage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">We have yet to wake up to the potential of defining and communicating to society at large the various ways in which one person&#8217;s drug misuse adversely affects the rest of us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Establishing readiness for prevention \u2013 CULTURAL CHANGE<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">What influences culture?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Peer group influence<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Personal perceptions<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Income versus cost of any action<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Health issues<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Moral structure<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Spiritual structure<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Family values<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Attraction of risk-taking<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Media<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Mental state<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Legislation<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Economy \u2013 the well-off or the poor<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Employment \u2013 job or no job<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">CSAP found in their comparison of practices that the best prevention results come through co-ordinated prevention efforts, offering multiple strategies, and providing multiple points of access.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong><em>*<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0*<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">This is but a quick canter through the jungle of Prevention. There is much more to it, but I hope I have whetted your appetite \u2013 and you may even see the sense in building prevention into your work spectrum. (As co-operators rather than competitors with other agencies).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Don\u2019t fear that prevention will reduce your treatment client base &#8211; as treatment workers, you are going to be in demand for a long time yet! Whilst some will be prevented from drug and alcohol abuse, and some will manage to cure themselves, most people need expert help.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">We are, after all, working towards the same objective.\u00a0 I once saw a cartoon in which a drug worker was asking a guru how to solve the drug problem. \u2018Why do people use drugs?\u2019 asked the guru. \u2018To escape reality\u2019 said the worker. \u2018Then the solution is obvious\u2019. Said the guru. \u2018Improve reality\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article is distilled from a paper given at the Recovery Plus conference in London on 26th June 2018 by Peter Stoker, Director of the National Drug Prevention Alliance. References available on request. Prevention, the word and meaning, comes from the Latin &#8220;praevenire&#8221; which means &#8220;to come before&#8221;. In other words, to act pre-the event [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,59,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brain-and-behaviour","category-nicotine","category-prevention-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}