KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Ministry of National Security has commended the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA) on the 2017 School Health Survey and for taking action to identify the hidden struggles which face Jamaican youth.

Speaking at the NCDA’s Youth Situation Forum held yesterday at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, junior security minister Pearnel Charles Jr noted that although the findings seemed negative, they should be perceived as positive because they present opportunities to prevent and control substance abuse and address other serious challenges.

“I’m very happy to see that the National Council on Drug Abuse continues to identify the importance of collecting data, as well as extracting and characterising the information to show behavioural patterns. This will help us to plan our response to protect and develop policies to benefit our youth,” Charles, Jr said.

The 2017 School Health Survey was an initiative of the World Health Organisation and the NCDA, which sought to measure adolescent health. The survey, which was conducted among 1,667 students aged 13 -17, measured behavioural risk and protective factors.

It found that 76 per cent of the students had engaged in some form of hard drug use, 45 per cent alcohol, 18 per cent tobacco, and 13 per cent marijuana. Of all the students who admitted to using drugs, 77 per cent of them noted they had used before the age of 14, while 49 per cent and 34 per cent of the students reported ease of access to alcohol and marijuana, respectively.

Charles Jr argued that the findings should be used to project the future. He noted that data analytics was a necessity used by organisations across the world to make smart business decisions and should be used by Government as a means to inform and improve public policy.

He noted that the Ministry of National Security, through its Citizen Security and Justice Programme (CSJP) has partnered with the NCDA to form the Specialised Substance Misuse Treatment Programme, which provides vulnerable young people with access to drug treatment facilities. Through the collaboration, young men and women living in communities where the CSJP operates are recommended to the NCDA for treatment if they have been flagged for substance misuse during assessment.