Is substance abuse talked about enough?

When I was at school, we had a lot of education about various things, but one thing that I don't think was ever mentioned to me was substance abuse. I was seeing it on the television, so was being influenced by it - yet I wasn't being given the right education to know what to do if I was placed in a situation where something was offered to me. So I think that our education system needs to be changed a little to make sure that people are given the information that they need to know before it's too late.

I second you on that, there is a need for more substance abuse awareness, tha needs to be raised, I do believe that if many people were aware, of what the drugs could do to them in the end, and how easy and bad it is to get addicted to them, I tink many peopl would be careful.

There are a lot of issues with the education system, and that's one of the main problems. Kids should be thought from the start about the dangers of falling prey to toxic substances, whether we talk about cigarettes, alcohol or drugs. This matter isn't raised a lot, and I feel like kids have to learn on their own, after their own mistakes.

I totally agree that our this subject should discussed more in our schools. Somehow it seems to be left completely up to the parents and the media to educate our youths. Granted parents need to educate the children, but often parents themselves need to educated on the very complex subject.

I say do more in our school system.

I totally agree with you too. Drug and substance abuse is increasingly alarming these days. More and more young individuals are using and abusing nowadays and sadly there's really nothing much being done about the problem. Just like what @Winterybella said, most of the time the responsibility of disciplining and educating children about drugs and substances are mainly left for parents to do. The problem is that sometimes even the parents are also abusing drugs so there's really not much support and counseling for children to turn to.

If sex education has been implemented in schools, I think it's also time for drug and substance abuse education to be considered.

You are right. The educational system needs to make substance abuse education important.Many people fall into addictions and suffer out of ignorance. Many people do not actually desire to get into these addictions, but because they do not know the implications of what they do, they end up getting addicted. There should be more eduction on this. The educational system needs to lay more emphasis on substance abuse. It is certain that education will reduce the number of people who fall into addictions. I also believe that substance abuse will substantially reduce, if parents begin to teach their children at home. The problem with most parents is that they do not usually believe that their children can fall into certain things until they do. Substance abuse will substantially reduce, if parents can educate their children at home. It should not only be a responsibility of schools, parents too need to prioritize on it.

Many people believe it's the parents responsibility to teach their kids about everything including substance abuse but whether the parent is an addict or not, parents these days spend very little time with their children. There never is time to teach their kids anything. So I guess schools should do more . . . but then what if the teachers are also addicts?

Even though substance abuse is not in the syllabuses, teachers do talk about it when relating to daily life. Parents are also supposed to enlighten their children about effects of taking drugs. We must talk about drugs when we are with our friends. That is when we can expect a drug free world.

I thought about that myself: teachers being addicts themselves or teaching with certain biases which happens in any subject area that allows for it. Take marijuana for example, the world is so divided on this drug it makes me wonder how it would or could be presented in the classroom.

Some teachers impact on the lives of children more than some parents ever do. I guess this whole question requires careful thought if ever implemented.

I agree with you, a big part of this information must be provided by school, not just by friends or family. The education system in my country is clearly not the best, but at least they informed us about substance abuse and they give us tips to deal with people who offered us drugs or alcohol, so I can't really complain about this.

I may be in the minority on this topic, but I think that substance abuse is talked about plenty. I am in my late 20s, and I believe there was enough information in the American public school system. There might have actually been too much information at too young of an age, because it made us curious and taught about unavailable drugs that we might not have heard of normally. I think that substance abuse is overly covered by the media, and is used as a cop-out for a lot of things.

Absolutely true. I think it's already time to open up these kinds of stuff to children/adolescents/teenagers. Proper education about substance abuse would somehow serve as a deterrent for these youngsters. It should definitely be implemented in our education system.

These days the school system roughly covers the topic but not enough for the youth to grow an actual understanding of the dangers or aftermath of substance abuse. I would consider it more of an anti drug campaign designed to try and keep the kids away without showing the harsh reality of the matter. More could definitely be done in terms of a deterrent and hopefully the education system adapts and grows to greater benefit the youth.

I think it would be nice if there would be a subject that would tackle drugs and addiction, so I would be in favor of it. It would greatly help with general awareness and with the battle against drug abuse.

In here, there are drug abuse resistance education classes in grade school and high school. There are even plays about the bad effects of drug abuse and the reasons why the youth should avoid it. In college, there are no discussions anymore about drug abuse, maybe depends on the course.

Addiction and addicts are still treated with a stigma although I think it is getting better. Substance abuse is on the increase unfortunately so I think it is getting talked about more than what it used to be.

The only way that people will get help, is I'd they know they won't be treated with contempt. There is help available, but not many addicts think they will be treated fairly, I think that a why a lot don't seek help.

I strongly agree with you on this. Much of this problem comes from our society's perception of a substance abuser. The contempt a person would be treated with seems like a horrible path to walk in and everyone will want to stay away. There needs to be a more welcoming perspective to it, one that reminds how we are all flawed and that its fine to seek help. It's getting better I suppose.

Unfortunately because so many children are introduced to drugs so young I feel that this should be talked about more in schools. I feel that children should know what will happen should they get addicted to drugs. I mean they are openly talking about sex so why not drugs.

I can only remember one time being talked about that in school either. I only remember being talked about STD in the biology class, but not about substance abuse. The time we got spoken about substance abuse when a person that went through it and now helps addicts came to our school and help a small talk with the last graders.

The educational system has a lot of problems. But, one of the major problems we need to deal with is the issue of drug abuse. Most children think using drugs is cool. Some are just not aware of the dangers involved. We need to talk more about it in our schools.