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For Teachers: Tips for Talking about Drugs in the Classroom

Create a Positive Classroom Environment Drug education is most effective when students feel comfortable sharing their ideas and asking a lot of questions.

Although it is essential that educators provide students with accurate facts about drug abuse and its side effects, prevention education also centers on listening. Listening carefully involves the following:

• Listen to the words being communicated, but also be aware of the non-verbal communication that accompanies these words. Non-verbal cues indicating feelings of fear, anger or guilt are important for teachers to understand if they are to be truly helpful to their students.
• Listen by paying attention. Looking directly at a student who is speaking is very confirming. It allows the student to believe what he or she is saying is being listened to, is important, and is being understood. Teachers need to be aware of their own non-verbal behaviors when they listen, such as frowns when they disapprove of something and smiles when they approve.
• Listen without interrupting. Interrupting a person who is trying to understand or be understood or trying to express feelings about something very important, frightening or guilt-laden may result in a shut-down at the very moment when an unclear or undeveloped thought is about to be clarified.
• Listen without judging. For students to learn through open communication, you must permit them to speak and listen when they are speaking. The very thoughts that might be responded to quickly in a negative, judgmental way may be of great concern to the student.
• Listen without giving advice. Giving advice is often an easy way of dealing with a complex problem. Students attempting to cope with the many issues associated with drug use must examine each issue and may not respond to quick and seemingly easy solutions. Communication takes time; giving advice often short-circuits the process.

Age-appropriate Messages

Grade School
When attempting to help school-aged children deal with a world that uses alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, consider the following:

• They are moving from total dependence on their parents to shared dependence with parents and peers.
• They are very concerned and focused on their maturing bodies and respond to information about health, nutrition and exercise.
• They tend to see things as either black or white; rules govern most aspects of their play and life. Legality and morality have strong meaning for children this age.
• They view people and messages as they want them to be, not necessarily as they are.
• Tobacco and alcohol advertising often uses this "fantasy" appeal.

Middle School
When attempting to intervene positively in the lives of middle school youth, help them gain control of situations and not be controlled by them, it is important to remember what motivates them.

• They are often controlled by the moment, acting first and thinking about it later. What feels good at the moment can easily dictate the choices they will make.
• They are keenly interested in their bodies and appearance, in how to become stronger or more attractive. This interest can provide a natural opening to teach them about the health hazards of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.
• They are big risk-takers, quick to test limits, break rules and even flirt with death.
• They enjoy danger and often believe they are invincible.
• They can think abstractly and are sufficiently aware of their own future to see the benefits of education and how their behavior can have long-term consequences.
• They are beginning to see shades of gray and recognize that complex moral issues cannot always be defined in black and white. They are influenced more by their own ability to make moral judgments than by the opinions of those who have the power and authority to tell them what to believe and how to behave.
• They are involved in their friendships. It is through friendships that they explore the world, test out ways of being and behaving, and acquire a sense of both belonging and identity. It is critical that parents, teachers and other adults help them learn how to develop healthy, positive friendships and reject friendships that are unhealthy.
• They want to grow up, but they don’t always know how to do it successfully. They definitely need adults in their lives to answer their questions, help with their problems, and generally serve as models of healthy, responsible, mature behavior.

High School
Drug prevention messages must have a foundation of accurate, factual information from which youth can draw conclusions about the dangers and long-term effects of drug use. Still, there are certain things educators should keep in mind when communicating with high school students about substance abuse.

• They need to continue learning and practicing how to resist peer pressure and to understand the valid reasons for saying "no" to risky behaviors.
• They need to be allowed to make independent decisions and to assume responsibility for choices that affect them and others.
• They need to see that, as citizens, they are responsible for making their communities better, safer places to live.
• They like to explore different sides of issues, examine various interpretations and justify their actions as correct moral choices.

Talking to Students about Marijuana Use
According to University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future data, marijuana use by students in grades 8, 10 and 12 has risen each year in direct correlation to the decreased harm students associate with the drug. As perceived risk goes down, youth use rates go up. Studies also show that students are beginning to experiment with marijuana at younger and younger ages. These findings point to the need for serious communication about the drug to dispel myths and emphasize real dangers.

When the topic is marijuana, students need to know facts. They need to know about their relationship to the drug. They must be aware of the increased likelihood that they will become involved with marijuana or know someone who is involved with it. Good, open communication is the primary skill teachers must bring to the challenge of influencing youthful attitudes about marijuana. Topics to be covered when talking with children and youth and marijuana include the following:

• What is marijuana and what are the many names for it?
• What are the side effects of marijuana use?
• What is the nature and possibility of marijuana dependence?
• How do you critically assess movies, books and music that show marijuana in a favorable light?
• How do you pick supportive friends who are drug free and who help you remain drug free?
• What are the effects of marijuana use on: school work; one's relationship with others, including parents; and future hopes and dreams?
• How do you say no when presented with the possibility of becoming involved with marijuana?
• How can you maintain a healthy lifestyle?
• What are stress reducers that don't involve drug use?

As is often the case with many parents today, teachers are being called upon to educate students about the dangers of a drug with which the teachers themselves may have experimented in the past. Despite the questions this raises in your own mind, it is important to recognize why student use of this drug is indeed dangerous. The latest research points to the reality of marijuana dependence. As with nicotine, marijuana users who discontinue using the drug report feelings of irritability and depression – conditions that often encourage resumption of the habit. Moreover, young people who use marijuana are 85 times likelier to use cocaine than children who have never used marijuana. (Source: National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University).

Marijuana impairs short-term memory and the ability to concentrate – abilities recognized by all educators to be important to school success. It slows reflexes and coordination and impairs the user’s ability to judge distance, speed and time – abilities that are important in sports, computer work, driving a car or riding a bicycle. Marijuana smoke causes the same kind of respiratory problems that cigarette smoke does – and can do more long-term damage to the lungs and heart than even cigarettes can.

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