Substance Abuse Prevention

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (December 2007)

This page has few or no links to other articles. (Tagged since February 2008). You can improve this article by adding links to related material, within the existing text. For some link suggestions, you can try Can We Link It tool. (You can help!)

Substance abuse prevention, also referred to as drug abuse prevention and drug use prevention is a process that attempts to deter the onset of substance use or limit the development of problems associated with using psychoactive substances. Substance abuse prevention efforts typically focus on minors – children and teens. Substances typically targeted by preventive efforts include alcohol (including binge drinking, drunkenness, and driving under the influence), tobacco (including cigarettes and various forms of smokeless tobacco), marijuana, inhalants (volatile solvents including among other things glue, gasoline, aerosols, ether, fumes from white out and marking pens), cocaine (including crack cocaine), methamphetamines, steroids, club drugs (such as Ecstacy), and opioids. Of these, substance abuse prevention typically focuses on alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana based on gateway drug theory which proposes that these three substances are typically used first and may ultimately lead to the use of "hard drugs" like cocaine or heroin.

Substance abuse prevention is the least funded solution regarding substance abuse.^{[citation needed]} Substance abuse prevention in America receives 1.575 billion dollars annually from the federal budget "National Drug Control, December 24, 2007".^{[citation needed]} Reactive solutions intervention and treatment combined receive over 10.3 billion tax dollars "National Drug Control, December 24, 2007".^{[citation needed]} Over 5000 teens die in alcohol related driving accidents each year. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS). Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human. The Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Office of Applied Studies latest report states in their Results from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings. The number and the percentage of youths aged 12 to 17 who needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem remained unchanged between 2005 and 2006 (2.1 million youths, and 8.3 percent of the population in 2005; 2.1 million youths, and 8.2 percent of the population in 2006). Of the 2.1 million persons in 2006, only 181,000 youths received treatment at a specialty facility (about 8.7 percent of youths who needed treatment), leaving 1.9 million youths who needed treatment for a substance use problem but did not receive it at a specialty facility. In 2006, among the 4.0 million persons aged 12 or older who received treatment for alcohol or illicit drug use in the past year, 2.2 million persons received treatment at a self-help group, and 1.6 million received treatment at a rehabilitation facility as an outpatient. There were 1.1 million persons who received treatment at a mental health center as an outpatient, 934,000 persons who received treatment at a rehabilitation facility as an inpatient, 816,000 at a hospital as an inpatient, 610,000 at a private doctor's office, 420,000 at a prison or jail, and 397,000 at an emergency room. None of these estimates changed significantly between 2005 and 2006. In 2006, during their most recent treatment in the past year, 2.5 million persons reported receiving treatment for alcohol use, and 1.2 million persons reported receiving treatment for marijuana use. Accordingly, estimates on receiving treatment for the use of other drugs were 928,000 persons for cocaine, 547,000 for pain relievers, 535,000 for stimulants, 466,000 for heroin, and 442,000 for hallucinogens. (Note that respondents could indicate that they received treatment for more than one substance during their most recent treatment.

Services, CDC; 2005. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars.

[edit] References

This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.