A Ministry of National Security (MNS) official says the growing drug problem among Jamaican youth cannot be controlled without first tackling the family and home situations of the youngsters at risk.

Orville Simmons, senior case management coordinator in the national security ministry described family life as a component that demands utmost attention when dealing with drug use.

“Parenting is very central. And through the case management approach that the 25 Schools Strategy is using the households will be central. Case officers will be working with families to ensure that, that aspect is treated with as well. Many times, issues start out because of family issues. Adult family issue stress out the pickney and next thing you know, the child is having fun with Molly,” Simmons told the Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange, part of a panel of health and security experts sharing views in recognition of Drug Awareness Month.

The 25 Schools Strategy is a collaborative effort between the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Education and Youth aimed at providing assessment, recommendation, intervention, and support for children who display maladaptive behaviour in the select schools.

“And so the family aspect is so central. And all hands have to be on deck when it comes on to the issue of households. Substance abuse certainly is critical, but it cannot be looked at in isolation. The crime prevention model proposes what is called ecological modelling — individual, family, peers, and wider community. So it has to be treated in that integrated, holistic way and not just in terms of one,” Simmons continued.

Simmons stressed that there are two broad approaches in dealing with drug misuse: the criminal justice approach and the crime prevention approach.

“Both are sorta linked to each other. From the criminal justice perspective, legislation is key and you would have heard that the issue of the revision of the Dangerous Drugs Act is before the National Security Council,” he told the Sunday Observer.

“We would want to know that, in terms of that legislation, provisions are there for trafficking because a lot of the illegal substances are trafficked into the country, then from different places within the country. So trafficking is a very critical thing.”

Michael Tucker, executive director at the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA) pointed out that substance misuse affects all aspects of life.

“It destroys families. Because of misusing substances and ignorance a future that was bright is blighted. Many of us have been seeing what is happening in the education system and some of the issues,” he told the Sunday Observer.

“Productivity is affected, and therefore, our productive workforce is affected by substance misuse, accidents on the job, we see the mayhem on the road, people’s lives being destroyed, and also breakdown of the working relationships in various agencies and operations.”

Tucker said the necessity for people to work as teams is also affected by people who abuse substances.

“We see the problems with theft. People in the system will steal because they are using substances and want to support the habit,” he said.

Simmons, however, said the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has been on the ball and will be zooming in on schools and parties as two of the main areas that vendors seek to target.

“Through their programme they will also be focusing on those areas. But most importantly, from the crime prevention perspective, the ministry, from as far back as the early 2000, recognised substance abuse as a major issue. It has been in the making for that long and it was then that the ministry engaged an organisation by the name of AAO [Addiction Alert Organisation],” he said.

Today, AAO is known as Rise Life Management Services.

“In AAO’s engagement of our youngsters they recognised that is was much more than the using of substances,” added Simmons.

Simmons said there are factors that predispose youngsters and adults to certain violent or criminal acts and that has to be considered before treatment can be effective.

“Recently, from 2018 or so, the MNS recognised that its crime prevention efforts were focusing to a large extent, not completely, on horses that went through the gate already,” he told the Sunday Observer.

He explained that those were the 18, 19, and 20-year-olds and noted that it was very expensive to engage those youngsters and treat with them.

“And the sustainability for their turnaround was not very encouraging. There was a high level of recidivism for an 18-year-old who got treated, and it was not sustained. The ministry then decided that we needed to look at the younger age group, the primary schools and the high schools,” he said.

Through that policy initiative, Simmons added that the Ministry of Education was engaged to look at schools situated in communities with zones of special operations (ZOSO).

“The ministry is now interested in grade four in primary schools, right up to grade nine in high school. It’s just as target, not that there aren’t issues with [grades] before and after, because we have seen grade two students threatening people to shoot them, and what they would do with them. And we know what happens up in grade 10 and 11.

“We have seen that peers play a significant role in their behaviour, and so the issue of peers and how we engage peers through mentoring, through having positive social activities for those youngsters, has to be included as well.”