|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
Barbados: Statistics Show Marijuana Most Common Drug
Patricia Thangaraj Barbados Advocate
Wednesday 11 Jan 2006 While the Caribbean continues to be an important area for the trans-shipment of drugs due to its geographical location, with the designer drugs such as amphetamines and ecstasy increasing in trafficking, the most commonly used drug within the region itself is marijuana. Information gathered from a Drug Abuse Epide-miological Surveillance System Project conducted among the secondary school students in the Caribbean, revealed that the prevalence of marijuana ranked as high as over 25 per cent for St. Lucia and over 20 per cent for Barbados and Grenada for lifetime use. For annual use, the statistics revealed that there was over 15 per cent prevalence in St. Lucia and over ten per cent in Barbados and Grenada. The various studies also found that more males use this drug than females especially in Bar-bados, St. Lucia, Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. There is also a concern about the amount of children under the age of ten that are using these drugs, Tessa Chaderton-Shaw, Manager of the National Council on Substance Abuse ( NCSA ) said. She was speaking at the workshop on the Pharmacology of Drugs, held yesterday in the Harcourt Lewis Training Room at the Barbados Public Workers Co-operative Credit Union Ltd. Although there have not been any studies conducted in primary schools, the NCSA plans to conduct studies in the future. Meanwhile, they are actively involved in drug awareness programmes in some of the secondary schools and would like to expand to work with other schools. The most prominent of these is the Peer Support Programme that teaches life skills and guides students in making the right choices. They also offer educational programmes at the primary level and assist in other initiatives like drug rehab at the prison, providing counselling for addicts and their families, training teachers and policy development. Chaderton-Shaw also said that they needed to find multiple ways of delivering the message of the dangers of drug and alcohol use and abuse, as talking may not always be the most effective method. As a result, the organisation is trying to deliver the message through various forms of music, since children naturally gravitate towards this form of entertainment. However, while the NCSA remains committed to the fight against drug abuse, they need assistance from other stakeholders such as school principals, parents, medical associations such as the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners ( BAMP ) and other key stakeholders. Chaderton-Shaw is also calling for an increase in permanent staff at the organisation. Currently they have two staff working with the secondary schools, one with the primary schools and two with the community. There is also a high prevalence of cigarettes, with countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Suriname, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines having the highest lifetime usage. Like marijuana, more males use this drug than females with the difference in the amount of male versus female users increasing in places like Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and St. Lucia. Among club drugs, alcohol is the most common with St. Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago having the highest prevalence rates. Again, more males use alcohol than females. Ironically, the surveys showed that while young persons know about the dangers of drug use, they still continue to use them due to peer pressure, rebellion and curiosity. http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!