School, parent, and student perspectives of school drug policies

Background: Schools use a number of measures to reduce harmful tobacco, alcohol, and drug use by students. One important component is the school's drug policy, which serves to set normative values and expectations for student behavior as well as to document procedures for dealing with drug-related incidents. There is little empirical evidence of how policy directly or indirectly influence students' drug taking. This study compares how effectively schools communicate school drug policies to parents and students, how they are implemented, and what policy variables impact students' drug use at school and their perceptions of other students' drug use at school.

Methods: Data were obtained from 3876 students attending 205 schools from 2 states in the United States and Australia, countries with contrasting national drug policy frameworks. School policy data were collected from school personnel, parents, and students.

Results: Schools' policies and enforcement procedures reflected national policy approaches. Parents and students were knowledgeable of their school's policy orientation.

Conclusions: When delivered effectively, policy messages are associated with reduced student drug use at school. Abstinence messages and harsh penalties convey a coherent message to students. Strong harm-minimization messages are also associated with reduced drug use at school, but effects are weaker than those for abstinence messages. This smaller effect may be acceptable if, in the longer term, it leads to a reduction in harmful use and school dropout within the student population.

A review of school drug policies and their impact on youth substance use

Youth substance use is an important social and health problem in the United States, Australia and other Western nations. Schools are recognized as important sites for prevention efforts and school substance use policies are a key component of health promotion in schools. The first part of this paper reviews the known status of school policies on tobacco, alcohol and other illicit drugs in a number of Western countries and the existing evidence for the effectiveness of school drug policy in preventing drug use. The review shows that most schools in developed countries have substance use policies but that there is substantial variation in the comprehensiveness of these policies (i.e. the breadth of people, places and times of day that are explicitly subject to policy prohibitions), and the orientation of their enforcement (e.g. punitive versus remedial), both across and within schools. The few studies of policy impact focus solely on tobacco policy and provide preliminary evidence that more comprehensive and strictly enforced school policies are associated with less smoking. The second part of the paper introduces the International Youth Development Study, a new longitudinal research project aimed at comparing school policies and the developmental course of youth drug use in the United States, where drug policies are abstinence-based, with Australia, which has adopted a harm minimization approach to drug policy

A cross-national comparison of school drug policies in Washington State, United States, and Victoria, Australia

Using mail survey data collected from primary and secondary school administrators in Washington State, United States, and in Victoria, Australia, this study compared aspects of the school drug policy environment in the 2 states. Documented substance-use policies were prevalent in Washington and Victoria but less prevalent in primary schools, especially in Victoria. Victorian school policy-setting processes were significantly more likely to involve teachers, parents, and students than processes in Washington schools. Consistent with expectations based on their respective national drug policy frameworks, school drug policies in Washington schools were more oriented toward total abstinence and more frequently enforced with harsh punishment (such as expulsion or calling law enforcement), whereas policies in Victorian schools were more reflective of harm-minimization principles. Within both states, however, schools more regularly used harsh punishment and remediation consequences for alcohol and illicit-drug violations compared to tobacco policy violations, which were treated more leniently. (J Sch Health. 2005;75(4):134-140)

Contextual determinants of alcohol consumption changes and preventive alcohol policies: a 12-country European study in progress.

Beginning with France in the 1950s, alcohol consumption has decreased in Southern European countries with few or no preventive alcohol policy measures being implemented, while alcohol consumption has been increasing in Northern European countries where historically more restrictive alcohol control policies were in place, even though more recently they were loosened. At the same time, Central and Eastern Europe have shown an intermediate behavior. We propose that country-specific changes in alcohol consumption between 1960 and 2008 are explained by a combination of a number of factors: (1) preventive alcohol policies and (2) social, cultural, economic, and demographic determinants. This article describes the methodology of a research study designed to understand the complex interactions that have occurred throughout Europe over the past five decades. These include changes in alcohol consumption, drinking patterns and alcohol-related harm, and the actual determinants of such changes.

School health policies and practices in Victoria- a comparison involving socio-economic status

Issue addressed: Health programs have been part of the responsibility of Victorian school education for 90 years. Yet rarely have there been studies to identify what is happening in school health promotion, or what the differences between schools might be, particularly in relation to the socioeconomic status of the school community and whether the school is in a metropolitan or regional area. Methods: In 1997 all Victorian schools (primary and secondary) in the State, Catholic and Independent systems were sent questionnaires in order to promote broader awareness about health promotion, and to identify what health programs, policies and activities the schools believed existed within their school community. A response rate of 43% was achieved, and results were collated under the six domains of the Health Promoting School model as outlined by the Western Pacific Regional Office of the World Health Organisation. Data analysed in this paper compared highest versus lowest quartiles for socioeconomic status (SES), and schools in metropolitan Melbourne versus regional areas. Results: Most differences between schools based on socioeconomic status occurred in secondary schools and were related mainly to environmental policies and practices, use of back packs, the presence of safety policies, involvement of parents in school activities and the provision of services for mental and social health needs. All differences were in favour of the highest SES quartile schools. Environmental policies and procedures, and school-based health and welfare services were present more often in metropolitan schools than in regional and rural schools. Conclusion: Although there were notable differences between schools, the audit results pointed to more similarities than differences between schools in the highest and lowest SES quartiles for health-related policies and practices; there were even fewer differences between metropolitan and non-metropolitan schools. So what: Regardless of the actual advantages and disadvantages schools experience with respect to location or socioeconomic status, it is important to understand that school staff perceive that they can and do have reasonably comprehensive health policies, procedures and practices to address health issues. Nevertheless, clear differences between schools did emerge in certain health areas and findings will assist policy making and the allocation of limited resources.

The impact of school tobacco policies on student smoking in Washington State, United States and Victoria, Australia

This paper measures tobacco polices in statewide representative samples of secondary and mixed schools in Victoria, Australia and Washington, US (N = 3,466 students from 285 schools) and tests their association with student smoking. Results from confounder-adjusted random effects (multi-level) regression models revealed that the odds of student perception of peer smoking on school grounds are decreased in schools that have strict enforcement of policy (odds ratio (OR) = 0.45; 95% CI: 0.25 to 0.82; p = 0.009). There was no clear evidence in this study that a comprehensive smoking ban, harsh penalties, remedial penalties, harm minimization policy or abstinence policy impact on any of the smoking outcomes.

Longitudinal effects of school drug policies on student marijuana use in Washington State and Victoria, Australia

OBJECTIVES: We examined the longitudinal effect of schools' drug policies on student marijuana use. METHODS: We used data from the International Youth Development Study, which surveyed state-representative samples of students from Victoria, Australia, and Washington State. In wave 1 (2002), students in grades 7 and 9 (n = 3264) and a school administrator from each participating school (n = 188) reported on school drug policies. In wave 2 (2003), students reported on their marijuana use. We assessed associations between student-reported and administrator-reported policy and student self-reported marijuana use 1 year later. RESULTS: Likelihood of student marijuana use was higher in schools in which administrators reported using out-of-school suspension and students reported low policy enforcement. Student marijuana use was less likely where students reported receiving abstinence messages at school and students violating school policy were counseled about the dangers of marijuana use. CONCLUSIONS: Schools may reduce student marijuana use by delivering abstinence messages, enforcing nonuse policies, and adopting a remedial approach to policy violations rather than use of suspensions.

Report on the evaluation of six school districts on the effectiveness of school wellness policies /

Illinois Public Act 94-0199 established the Illinois School Wellness Policy Task Force which was to submit specific reports to the General Assembly and the Governor: 1) identification of barriers to developing and implementing school wellness policies and recommendations to reduce these barriers by Jan. 1, 2006; 2) recommendations on statewide school nutrition standards by Jan. 1, 2007; 3) evaluation of five to ten school districts on the effectiveness of school wellness policies by Jan. 1, 2008.

Report on barriers to implementing school wellness policies and recommendations to reduce these barriers /

"January 2006."

Parliamentary inquiry into alcohol-related violence

Alcohol consumption has been a popular leisure activity among Australian since European Settlement. Australians currently consume 7.2 litres per capita pure alcohol and Australia in regards to alcohol consumption is ranked as the 22nd highest country of 58 countries. Although the alcohol industry has provided leisure, employment and government taxes, alcohol use has also become associated with chronic health problems, crime, public disorder and violence. Drunken and disorderly behaviour is commonly associated with Pubs, Clubs and Hotels, particularly in the late night entertainment areas. Historically, drunkenness and disorderly behaviour has been managed by measures such as floggings, jail and treatment in asylums. Alcohol has also been banned in specific areas and restrictions have applied to hours and days of operation. In more recent times alcohol policies have included extended trading hours, restricted trading hours and bans in some Aboriginal communities in order to reduce alcohol-related violence. Community and business partnerships in and around licensed premises have also developed in order to address the noise, violence and disorderly behaviour that often occurs in the evenings and early mornings. There is an urgent need for the government to be more robust about implementing effective alcohol control policies in order to prevent and reduce the harmful effects of alcohol.

Friedman Economic Policies, Social Exclusion and Crime: Toward a Gendered Left Realist Subcultural Theory.

Left realists contend that people lacking legitimate means of solving the problem of relative deprivation may come into contact with other frustrated disenfranchised people and form subcultures, which in turn, encourage criminal behaviors. Absent from this theory is an attempt to address how, today, subcultural development in North America and elsewhere is heavily shaped simultaneously by the recent destructive consequences of right-wing Friedman or Chicago School economic policies and marginalized men's attempts to live up to the principles of hegemonic masculinity. The purpose of this paper, then, is to offer a new left realist theory that emphasizes the contribution of these two key determinants.

Model-based appraisal of minimum unit pricing for alcohol in Northern Ireland

In 2009, the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group (SARG) at Sheffield University developed the Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model version 2.0 (SAPM) to appraise the potential impact of alcohol policies, including different levels of MUP, for the population of England. In 2013, SARG were commissioned by the DHSSPS and the Department for Social Development to adapt the Sheffield Model to NI in order to appraise the potential impact of a range of alcohol pricing policies. The present report represents the results of this work. Estimates from the Northern Ireland (NI) adaptation of the Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model - version 3 - (SAPM3) suggest: 1. Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) policies would be effective in reducing alcohol consumption, alcohol related harms (including alcohol-related deaths, hospitalisations, crimes and workplace absences) and the costs associated with those harms. 2. A ban on below-cost selling (implemented as a ban on selling alcohol for below the cost of duty plus the VAT payable on that duty) would have a negligible impact on alcohol consumption or related harms. 3. A ban on price-based promotions in the off-trade, either alone or in tandem with an MUP policy would be effective in reducing alcohol consumption, related harms and associated costs. 4. MUP and promotion ban policies would only have a small impact on moderate drinkers at all levels of income. Somewhat larger impacts would be experienced by increasing risk drinkers, with the most substantial effects being experienced by high risk drinkers. 5. MUP and promotion ban policies would have larger impacts on those in poverty, particularly high risk drinkers, than those not in poverty. However, those in poverty also experience larger relative gains in health and are estimated to marginally reduce their spending due to their reduced drinking under the majority of policies åÊ