Abstract

School based educational preventive programs for substances of abuse such as tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA/ecstasy) and use of many other illicit substances should be encouraged globally in order to start sensitizing the young generation of the harmful effects related to use of these stuffs. Such educational programs if incorporated within the school curricula helps to make pupils or students grow while knowing that using these substances is dangerous and can have serious consequences in terms of their health status as well as affecting their academic performance while in school. The United States in particular is in the drivers seat in engineering designing, implementation and sustainability of these preventive programs almost in every school. Such preventive programs are also highly needed by developing countries but they lack resources as these programs are expensive to maintain and sustain them.

Keywords: Tobacco; Alcohol; Substances of abuse; MDMA; Ectasy;Heroin; Cocaine; Marijuana; Developing countries; Developed countries